'^  PRINCETON.  N.  J.  '(^^ 


Library  of  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge.      Presented. 


BX  9869  .P3  A3  1859 
Parker,  Theodore,  1810-1860 
Theodore  Parker's  experienc 
as  a  minister 


) 


THEODOUE    PARKEirs 


EXPERIENCE  AS  A  MINISTER, 


SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  HIS  EARLY  LIFE, 


EDUCATION     FOR     THE     MINISTRY; 


COXTAINKU     IX    A   LETTER   FROM     HIM     TO    THE     MEMKEUS    OK     THK 
TWENTV-EIGIITH  CONGREGATIOXAI,  SOCIETY  OF  BOSTON". 


BOSTON: 

R  U  F  U  S       L  E  1  G  H  T  O  N ,       JR. 

1859. 


Entered   according  to   Act   of  Congress,  in  tlie  year  1859, 

K  T    R  U  F  U  S     L  E  T  G  H  T  O  N  ,     Jr., 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  tlie  District  of  Massaclmsetts. 


ELECTROTTPED   BT   COWLES   AND   COMPANY, 
17  WASHINGTON    ST  ,   BOSTON. 

Gko.  C.  Hand  &  Avkuv,  ruiNTKii.s,  3  Coiiniiim.,  Eosto.v. 


P  11  E  F  A  C  E  . 


The  Letter  from  Mr.  Parker  to  his  Congregation,  wliieh 
occupies  the  greater  part  of  this  volume,  has  been  received 
within  a  few  days.  It  sufficiently  explains  itself,  and  needs  no 
introduction.  For  the  information,  however,  of  those  who  may 
not  be  familiar  with  the  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  the 
other  letters  which  are  here  printed,  it  may  be  well  to  make  the 
following  statements  : 

Mr.  Parker's  health,  which  had  been  gradually  failing  for  a 
year  or  two  previous,  during  the  year  1858  became  so  much 
impaired  as  to  excite  the  serious  apprehensions  of  his  friends. 
He  continued,  however,  though  suffering  much  from  illness,  to 
preach  regularly  at  the  Music  Hall,  —  with  two  intermissions,  of 
several  weeks  each,  when  positively  unable  to  officiate,  —  up  to 
the  2d  of  January  last,  when  ho  delivered  a  discourse  entitled 
"  What  Religion  may  do  for  a  Man  :  a  Sermon  for  the  New 
Year,"  which  has  since  been  given  to  the  public. 

On  the  following  Sunday  the  Congregation  assembled  as  usual, 
expecting  to  listen  to  their  Minister.  He  did  not  appear,  but 
sent  the  following  note,  which  was  read  to  the  audience  : — 

Sunday  Morning,  January  9,  1851). 
To  THE  Congregation  at  the  Music  Hall  :  — 
AVeli.-beloved  and  Long-tried  Friends  : 

I  shall  not  speak  to  }ou  to^laj- ;  for  this  morning,  a  little  afic-r 
foiu-  o'clock,  I  had  a  slight  attack  of  bleeding  in  the  lungs  or  throat. 


IV  PREFACE. 

I  iiiti'iidiMl  to  preacli  on  '"The  Religion  of  Jesus  and  the  Christian- 
ity of  the  Church,  or  the  Superiority  of  Good  Will  to  Man  over 
Theological  Fancies." 

I  hope  you  will  not  forget  the  contribution  for  the  Poor,  whom 
we  have  with  us  always.  I  don't  know  Avhen  I  shall  again  look 
upon  your  welcome  faces,  which  have  so  otlen  cheered  my  spirit 
when  my  flesh  was  Aveak. 

May  we  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  lumihly  with  our  God, 
and  his  blessing  will  be  upon  us  here  and  hereafter,  for  his  Infinite 
Love  is  with  us  for  ever  and  ever. 

Faithfully  your  friend, 

THEODORE  PARKER. 


The  sensation  of  grief  excited  by  the  reading  of  this  note 
wa.s  general  and  profound.  Very  many  eyes  were  dimmed  with 
tears,  for  although  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Parker  from  his  public 
ministrations  had  not  been  altogether  unanticipated  by  those  who 
had  been  aware  of  his  feeble  state  of  health  for  some  time  pre- 
vious, yet  it  had  been  hoped  that  no  trouble  so  serious  as  that 
announced  in  the  note  would  arise. 

After  the  reading  of  the  note,  a  meeting  of  the  parish  was 
held,  at  which,  after  remarks  by  .several  gentlemen,  it  was  voted 
to  continue  the  salary  of  Mr.  Parker  for  one  year,  at  least,  witli 
the  understanding  that  he  would  take  a  respite  from  all  public 
duties  for  that  period,  or  longer.  A  vote  expressive  of  the  deep 
and  heart-felt  sympathy  of  the  Society  with  their  ^Minister  was 
also  unanimously  pas.sed. 

Mr.  I'arker  was  advised  by  his  physicians  to  leave  as  soon  as 
jiossible  fur  the  West  Indies;  and  accordingly,  after  arranging 
liis  affairs  as  if  he  were  not  to  return  again,  he  left  Boston  for 
Santa  Cruz  on  the  3d  of  February.  Previous  to  his  departure 
be  wrote  a  brief  Farewell  l^etter  to  his  Congregation,  on  the  27th 
of  January,  which  was  ))ublished  at  tlie  end  of  the  New  Year's 
Sermon,  and  is  now  reprinted  here. 


PREFACE.  V 

Meanwhile,  the  Letter  from  the  Congregation  to  their  Minister, 
bearing  the  date  of  January  11th,  was  prepared,  and  read  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Society  and  many 
others  of  Mr.  Parker's  friends,  held  on  that  day,  and  at  that 
time  and  within  a  few  days  subsequent,  was  signed  by  about 
three  hundred  members  of  the  Society.  This  number  of  signa- 
tures might  easily  have  been  increased  tenfold  had  it  been 
generally  known  that  such  a  letter  had  been  written  ;  but  owing 
to  the  critical  condition  of  Mr.  Parker's  health,  it  was  deemed 
advisable  to  use  special  precaution  to  keep  it  from  his  know- 
ledge, and  therefore  no  public  notice  of  the  letter  was  given, 
and  the  signatures  attached  to  it  were  privately  obtained  from 
such  persons  as  were  most  easily  accessible.  For  the  same 
reason  it  was  not  considered  prudent  to  apprise  Mr.  Parker  of 
the  letter  previous  to  his  leaving  Boston,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  6th  of  March  that  he  received  it,  at  Santa  Cruz 

The  whole  correspondence  is  now  published  for  the  Members 
of  the  Society,  and  all  others  whom  it  may  interest. 

Boston,  June  10th,  1859. 
1* 


FAREWELL    LETTER, 


To  THE  Members  of   the  Twenty-eighth  Congrega- 
tional Society  in  Boston. 

Much  valued  Friends: — 

When  I  first  found  myself  unable  to  speak  to  you 
again,  and  medical  men  bade  me  be  silent,  and  flee 
off  for  my  life  to  a  more  genial  clime,  I  determined, 
before  I  went,  to  make  ready  and  publish  my  New 
Year's  Sermon,  the  last  I  ever  preached ;  and  the 
one  which  was  to  follow  it,  the  last  I  ever  wrote, 
lying  there  yet  unspoken ;  and  also  to  prepare  a 
letter  to  you,  reviewing  our  past  intercourse  of  now 
nearly  fifteen  years. 

The  phonographer's  swift  pen  made  the  first  work 
easy,  and  the  last  sermon  lies  printed  before  you ; 
the  next  I  soon  laid  aside,  reserving  my  forces  for 
the  last.  But  alas  !  the  Thought,  and  still  more  the 
Emotion,  requisite  for  such  a  Letter,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances,  are   quite    too   much   for  me   now.     So, 


8  FAREWELL    LETTER    OF    MR.    PARKER. 

with  much  regret,  1  find  myself  compelled  by  ne- 
cessity to  forego  the  attempt:  nay,  rather,  I  trust, 
only  to  2^ostjpone  it  for  a  few  Aveeks. 

Now,  I  can  but  write  this  note  in  parting,  to  thank 
you  for  the  patience  with  which  you  have  heard  me 
so  long ;  for  the  open-handed  generosity  which  has 
provided  for  my  unexpected  needs ;  for  the  con- 
tinued affection  which  so  man}'  of  you  have  always 
shown  me,  and  now  more  tenderly  than  ever ;  and 
yet,  above  all,  for  the  joy  it  has  given  me  to  see 
the  great  Ideas  and  Emotions  of  True  Religion  spring- 
up  in  your  fields  with  such  signs  of  promise.  If  my 
labors  were  to  end  to-day,  I  should  still  say,  "  Lord, 
now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,"  for 
I  think  few  men  have  seen  larger  results  follow  such 
labors,  and  so  brief.  But  I  shall  not  think  our  con- 
nection is  ended,  or  likely  soon  to  be :  I  hope  yet 
to  look  in  your  eyes  again,  and  speak  to  your 
hearts.  So  far  as  my  recovery  depends  on  me,  be 
assured,  dear  friends,  I  shall  leave  nothing  undone 
to  eff'ect  it ;  and,  so  far  as  it  is  beyond  human  con- 
trol, certainly  you  and  I  can  trust  the  Infinite  Parent 
of  us  all,  without  whose  beneficent  Providence  not 
even  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground ;  living  here  or 
in  Heaven,  we  are  all  equally  the  cliildren  of  tliat 
unbounded  Love. 

It  has  given  me  great  ])ain  that  L  could  not  be 
with   such  of  V(iu    as   have   latelv   suffered  bereave- 


FAREWELL    LETTER    OP    MR.    PARKER.  9 

ments  and  other  affliction,  and  at  least  speak  words 
of  endearment  and  sympathy  when  Avords  of  conso- 
lation would  not  suffice. 

I  know  not  how  long  we  shall  be  separated,  but, 
Avhile  thankful  for  our  past  relations,  I  shall  still 
fervently  pra}'  for  your  Welfare  and  Progress  in  True 
Religion,  both  as  a  Society,  and  as  individual  men 
and  Avomen.  I  knoAv  you  Avill  still  think  only  too 
kindly  of 

Your  Minister  and  Friend, 

THEODORE   PARKER. 

Exeter  Place,  27th  January,  1859. 


LETTER  TO  MR.   PARKER. 


The  Members  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Congrega- 
tional Society  op  Boston  to  their  Beloved 
Minister  : 

Dear  Sir: — 

It  is  now  many  years  since  you  came,  at  the  re- 
quest of  some  of  us,  to  preach  in  this  city.  A  few 
men  and  women,  acting  under  the  impulse  of  a  deep 
religious  need,  which  the  churches  of  Boston  at  that 
time  failed  to  satisfy,  sought  to  establish  a  pulpit 
which  should  teach  a  higher  idea  of  religion  than 
yet  prevailed,  and  wherein  the  largest  freedom  of 
thought  and  speech  should  be  allowed  and  respected. 
They  asked  you  to  come  and  stand  in  such  a  pulpit, 
thinking  that  you  would  meet  their  demand,  and  re- 
solving that  you  should  "  have  a  chance  to  be  heard 
in  Boston" — a  chance  Avhich  other  men  were  not 
willing  to  allow.     At    their   earnest   solicitation  you 


12  LETTER   TO    MR.    PARKER. 

came,  and  the  result  has   shown  that  they  were  not 
mistaken  in  their  choice. 

On  the  formal  organization  of  this  Society,  when 
you  were  installed  as  its  Minister,  on  the  4th  of 
January,  1846,  you  preached  a  sermon  of  "  The  True 
Idea  of  a  Christian  Church."  How  well  and  faith- 
fully 3'ou  have  labored  from  that  time  till  now  to 
make  that  idea  a  fact,  and  to  build  up  such  a  church, 
we  all  know\  From  Sunday  to  Sunday,  year  after 
year, — with  rare  exceptions,  when  other  duties  or 
necessities  compelled  your  absence, — you  have  been 
at  your  post,  and  have  always  discharged  the  great 
functions  of  your  office  in  a  manner  which  has  left 
nothing  to  be  desired  on  our  part, — avoiding  no 
responsibility,  neglecting  no  trust,  leaving  no  duty 
undone,  but  working  with  an  ability,  energy,  per- 
severance, and  self-sacrifice,  of  which  it  is  not,  per- 
haps, becoming  in  us  to  speak  at  length  in  this  place, 
but  which  we  cannot  the  less  admire  and  approve. 
Outside  of  the  pulpit,  we  have  always  found  you 
equally  faithful  to  your  responsibilities  and  duties  in 
all  the  various  relations  of  life. 

Nor  have  your  labors  and  your  example  been  in 
vain.  You  have  taught  us  to  discern  between  the  tra- 
ditions of  men  and  the  living  realities  of  religion  ;  you 
have  brought  home  to  our  consciousness  groat  truths, 
of  the  intellect,  the  conscience,  the  heart  and  the 
soul;   Von   Iiavc   sliown   us   the  Infinito   Perfection  of 


LETTER    TO    MR.    PARKER.  13 

God,  and  the  greatness  of  Human  Nature,  inspired  us 
with  a  higher  reverence  for  Him,  a  deeper  trust  in 
his  universal  providence,  with  a  larger  faith  also  in 
Man  and  his  capabilities.  You  have  encouraged  us 
to  oppose  all  manner  of  wickedness  and  oppression, 
to  welcome  every  virtue  and  humanity,  to  engage 
in  all  good  works  and  noble  reforms.  From  the  ex- 
perience of  mankind,  of  nations,  and  of  individuals, 
you  have  drawn  great  lessons  of  truth  and  wisdom 
for  our  warning  or  guidance.  Above  all,  your  own 
noble  and  manly  and  Christian  life  has  been  to  us  a 
perpetual  Sermon,  fuller  of  wisdom  and  beauty,  more 
eloquent  and  instructive,  even,  than  the  lessons  which 
have  fallen  from  your  lips. 

In  all  our  intercourse  with  j^ou,  you  have  ever 
been  to  us  as  a  teacher,  a  friend,  and  brother,  and 
have  never  assumed  to  be  our  master.  You  have 
respected  and  encouraged  in  us  that  free  indi- 
viduality of  thought  in  matters  of  religion,  and  all 
other  matters,  which  you  have  claimed  for  yourself; 
you  have  never  imposed  on  us  your  opinions,  asking 
us  to  accept  them  because  they  were  yours,  but 
you  have  always  warned  us  to  use  a  wise  discretion 
and  decide  according  to  our  own  judgment  and  con- 
science, not  according  to  yours.  You  have  not 
sought  to  build  up  a  sect,  but  a  free  Christian 
community. 

You  have  indeed  been  a  minister  to  us,  and  we 
2 


14  LETTER    TO    MK.    PARKER. 

feel  that  your  ministry  has  been  for  our  good ;  tliat 
through  it  Ave  are  better  prepared  to  successfully 
resist  those  temptations  and  to  overcome  those  evils 
by  which  we  are  surrounded  in  life,  to  discharge 
those  obligations  which  devolve  upon  us  as  men 
aiming  to  be  Christians,  and  to  acquit  ourselves  as 
we  ought. 

As  we  have  gathered  together  from  Sunday  to 
Sunday,  as  we  have  looked  into  your  face,  and  your 
words  have  touched  our  sympathies  and  stirred 
within  us  our  deepest  and  best  emotions,  as  we 
have  come  to  know  you  better  year  by  year,  and  to 
appreciate  more  fully  the  service  which  you  have 
been  doing  for  us  and  for  other  men,  and  the  faith- 
fulness with  which  you  have  labored  in  it,  we  have 
felt  that  ours  was  indeed  a  blessed  privilege ;  and 
we  have  indulged  a  hope  that  our  lives  might  testify 
to  the  good  influence  of  your  teachings — a  hope 
which  we  humbly  trust  has  to  some  extent,  at  least, 
been  realized.  If  we  have  failed  to  approximate 
that  high  ideal  of  excellence  which  you  have  always 
set  before  us,  the  blame  is  our  own,  and  not  yours. 

The  world  has  called  us  hard  names,  but  it  is  on 
you  that  have  fallen  the  hatred,  the  intolerance,  the 
insults  and  the  calumnies  of  men  callhig  themselves 
Christian.  Alas !  that  they  should  be  so  wanting 
in  the  first  principles  of  that  religion  which  Christ 
taught    and    liv^^l,  and  wliicli   tlioy  ])rt>t('nd   to  honor 


LETTER    TO    MR.    PARKER.  15 

and  uphold.  Of  those  who  have  opposed  us,  many 
have  done  so  through  ignorance,  misled  by  the  false 
representations  of  others ;  some  from  conscientious 
motives ;  others  from  selfishness  in  many  forms. 
Time  has  already  done  much  to  correct  this  evil 
with  many ;  it  will  do  more  to  correct  it  with  others. 
While  the  little  we  may  have  sacrificed  on  our  part 
has  been  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  all  we  have 
gained,  from  our  connection  with  you,  as  members 
of  this  society,  on  yours  the  sacrifice  has  been 
great  indeed — not,  however,  without  its  recompense 
to  you  also,  we  hope  and  trust. 

For  all  that  you  have  been  to  us,  for  all  that  you 
have  done,  and  borne,  and  forborne,  in  our  behalf, 
Ave  thank  you  kindly,  cordially,  and  affectionately. 
We  feel  that  we  owe  you  such  gratitude  as  no 
words  of  ours  can  express.  If  we  have  not  shown 
it  in  the  past  by  conforming  our  lives  to  that  high 
standard  of  morality  and  piety  which  you  have  ex- 
emplified in  your  own,  let  us  at  least  try  to  do  so  in 
the  future. 

We  cannot  but  feel  a  just  pride  in  the  success  of 
this  church ;  that,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  it  has 
strengthened  and  increased  from  year  to  year,  and 
that  the  circle  of  its  influence  has  continually 
widened.  Thousands  of  earnest  men  and  women 
in  this  and  other  lands,  who  do  not  gather  with  us 
from  week   to  week,  look  to  this    church   as   their 


16  LETT?]Il    TO    Mil.    PAKKFJ!. 

"  city  of"  refuge  ; "  their  .sympathies,  their  convictions, 
and  their  liopes  coincide  with  our  own  ;  they  are  of" 
us,  thougli  not  with  us.  Most  of  them  have  never 
Hstened  to  your  voice,  nor  looked  upon  your  face, 
but  the  noble  words  Avhich  you  have  uttered  arc 
dear  to  their  hearts,  and  they  also  bless  God  for  the 
service  which  you  have  done  for  them. 

In  all  your  labors  for  us  and  for  others,  we  have 
only  one  thing  to  regret,  and  that  is,  that  you  have 
not  spared  yourself,  but  have  sacrificed  your  health 
and  strength  to  an  extent  which,  of  late,  has  excited 
our  deepest  solicitude  and  apprehension.  Wc  thank 
God  that  ho  furnished  you  with  a  vigorous  constitu- 
tion, Avhich  has  stood  the  test  of  so  many  years 
of  incessant  and  unwearied  toil,  in  so  many  de- 
partments of  usefulness,  and  which  has  enabled 
>ou  to  accomj^lish  so  much  as  you  have  already 
done ;  but  there  is  a  limit  to  the  endurance  of 
even  the  strongest  man,  and  the  frequent  warnings 
Av'hich  you  have  received  within  the  jjast  year  or 
two  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Nature  will  not 
suffer  even  the  best  of  her  children  to  trans- 
gress the  great  laws  which  she  has  establislied  for 
their  observance,  without  inflicting  the  penalty  of 
disobedience,  even  though  they  are  engaged  in  the 
highest  and  holiest  service  which  man  can  render 
unto  man.     We  would  not  presume   to   instruct  you 


LETTER    TO    MR.    PARKER.  17 

in  this  matter  ;  we   onh"  repeat  what  you  have  your- 
self often  taught  us. 

A  warning  now  comes  of  so  imperative  a  nature 
that  it  cannot  be  disregarded. 

We  need  not  assure  you  that  the  note  from  you 
which  was  read  at  the  Music  Hall  on  Sunday  morning- 
last,  was  listened  to  by  us  with  the  most  sincere  and 
heartfelt  sorrow — sorrow,  however,  not  unmingled 
with  hope.  While  we  feel  the  deepest  and  warmest 
sympathy  for  you  under  the  new  and  serious  de- 
velopment of  the  disease  from  which  you  are  suf- 
fering, we  yet  trust  that  it  is  not  too  late  to  arrest 
its  progress,  and  that,  in  some  more  genial  clime 
than  ours,  relieved  from  the  cares  and  responsi- 
bilities which  have  borne  heavily  upon  you  for  so 
many  years,  you  may  regain  that  soundness  of 
health  which  shall  enable  you  to  resume,  at  some 
future  day,  the  great  work  to  which  you  have  de- 
voted your  life. 

We  know  with  how  much  reluctance  it  is  that 
you  feel  compelled  to  suspend  your  labors  among 
us  at  this  time ;  but  there  is  the  less  cause  for  re- 
gret on  your  part,  inasmuch  as  you  have,  by  the 
services  you  have  already  rendered  to  mankind,  far 
more  than  earned  the  right  to  do  so,  even  if  the 
necessity  did  not  exist. 

Whether  it  is  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  period  that 
you  will  be  separated  from  us,  of  course  none  of  us 
2* 


18  LETTER    TO    MH.    PAIJKEK. 

can  tell.  In  any  event,  God's  will  bo  done  !  and  at 
all  times,  wherever  you  may  be,  you  will  have  our 
deepest  veneration  and  regard. 

Waiting  for  that  happier  day  when  we  shall  again 
take  you  by  the  hand,  and  again  listen  to  your 
welcome  voice,  we  remain 

Your  faithful  and  loving  friends, 

(In  behalf  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Congregational  So- 
ciety), 

SAMUEL  MAY, 

MARY  MAY, 

THOMAS    CrODDARD, 

FRANCIS   JACKSON, 

JOHN   FLINT, 

WILLIAM  DALL, 

JOHN   R.   MANLEY, 

And  three  hundred  others. 

Boston,  January  11,  1859. 


REPLY  OF  ME.  PAEKEE. 


Feedericksted,  Santa  Ceuz,  9th  May,  1859. 

To  Samuel  May,  Mary  May,  Thomas  Goddard,  Francis 
Jackson,  John  Fh'nt,  William  Dall,  John  R.  Manley, 
and  the  other  signers  of  a  Letter  to  me,  dated  Bos- 
ton, January  11th,  1859: — 

Dear  Friends: — Your  genial  and  most  welcome 
Letter  was  handed  to  me  at  this  place  the  6th  of 
March  ;  I  had  not  strength  before  to  bear  the  excite- 
ment it  must  occasion.  It  was  Sunday  Morning ;  and 
while  you  were  at  the  Music  Hall,  I  read  it  in  this 
little  far-off  Island,  with  emotions  you  may  imagine 
easier  than  I  can  relate.  It  brought  back  the  times 
of  trial  we  have  had  together,  and  your  many  kind- 
nesses to  me.  I  can  easily  bear  to  be  opposed,  and 
that  with  the  greatest  amount  of  abuse ;  for  habit 
makes  all  things  familiar.  I  fear  it  flatters  my  pride 
a  little,  to  be  greatly  underrated ;  but  to  be  appre- 
ciated  so   tenderly  by  your  affection,  and   rated   so 


20  REPLY    OF    MR.    PARKER. 

much  above  my  own  deservings,  it  makes  me  ashamed 
that  I  am  no  more  worthy  of  your  esteem  and  praise : 

"  I  've  heard  of  hearts  unkind,  kind  deeds 
With  coldness  still  returning; 
Alas  !  the  Gratitude  of  men 

Hath  oftener  left  me  mourning  ! " 

Herewith  I  send  you,  and  all  the  Members  of  tlie 
Society,  a  long  Letter,  reviewing  my  life,  and  especially 
my  connection  with  you.  I  began  to  compose  it  be- 
fore I  knew  of  your  Letter  to  me,  before  I  left  Bos- 
ton, indeed,  in  sleepless  nights ;  but  wrote  nothing 
till  I  was  fixed  in  this  place,  and  then  only  little  by 
little,  as  I  had  strength  for  the  work.  I  finished  it 
April  19th,  and  so  date  it  that  day.  The  fair  copy 
sent  you  is  made  by  my  wife  and  Miss  Stevenson,  and 
of  course  was  finished  much  later.  I  have  had  no  safe 
opportunity  of  sending  it  direct  to  you  till  now,  Avhcn 
Miss  Thacher,  one  of  our  townswomen,  returning 
hence  to  Boston,  kindly  offers  to  take  charge  of  it. 
If  this  copy  do  not  reach  you,  I  shall  forward  another 
from  Europe. 

The  Letter  would  have  been  quite  different,  no 
doubt,  in  plan  and  execution,  —  better,  I  hope,  in 
thought  and  language,  had  I  been  sound  and  well ;  for 
all  a  sick  man's  work  seems  likely  to  be  infected  with 
his  illness.  I  beg  you  to  forgive  its  imperfections,  and 
be  as  gentle  in  your  judgment  as  fairness  will  allow. 


REPLY    OF    MR.    PARKER.  21 

Though  I  have  been  reasonably  industrious  all  my 
life,  when  I  come  to  look  over  what  I  have  actually 
done,  it  seems  very  little  in  comparison  with  the  op- 
portunities I  have  had  ;  only  the  beginning  of  what  I 
intended  to  accomplish.  But  it  is  idle  to  make  excuses 
now,  and  not  profitable  to  complain. 

As  that  Letter  is  intended  for  all  the  Members  of 
the  Twenty-eighth  Congregational  Society,  I  beg  you 
to  transmit  it  to  the  Standing  Committee,  —  I  know 
not  their  names,  —  who  will  lay  it  before  them  in  some 
suitable  manner. 

With  thanks  for  the  past,  and  hearty  good  wishes  for 
your  future  welfare,  believe  me 

Faithfully  your  Minister  and  Friend, 

THEODORE  PARKER. 


Fkedericksted,  Santa  Cruz,  9tli  May,  1859. 

To  THE  Standing  Committee  of  the  Twenty-eighth 
Congregational  Society  in  Boston. 

Gentlemen  and  Ladies: — Here  is  a  Letter  addressed 
to  the  Members  of  your  Society.  I  beg  you  to  lay  it 
before  them  in  such  a  manner  as  you  may  see  most 
fit.     Beheve  me 

Faithfully  your  Minister  and  Friend, 

THEODORE  PARKER. 


THEODORE    PARKER'S 


EXPERIENCE  AS  A  MINISTEH. 


LETTER. 


To  THE  Members  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Congkega- 
TiONAL  Society  of  Boston. 
My  DEAR  AND  VALUED  Friends  : — After  it  became 
needful  that  I  should  be  silent,  and  flee  off  from  my 
home,  I  determined,  at  least,  before  I  went,  to  write 
you  a  letter,  touching  our  long  connection,  and  my 
efforts  in  your  service,  and  so  bid  you  farewell.  But 
the  experienced  doctors  and  other  wise  friends  forbid 
the  undertaking,  and  directed  me  to  wait  for  a  more 
favorable  time,  when  the  work  might  be  more  leisurely 
and  better  done,  with  less  risk  also  to  my  life ;  prom- 
ising indeed  a  time  when  it  would  not  diminish  the 
chances  of  recovery.  In  the  twenty-four  days  which 
came  between  the  sudden,  decisive  attack,  and 
my  departure  from  Boston,  there  was  little  time  for 
even  a  sound,  well  man  to  arrange  and  settle  his 
worldly  affairs,  to  straighten  out  complicated  matters, 
and  return  thanks  to  the  many  that  have  befriended 
him  in  the  difficult  emergencies  of  life,  —  for  surely 
I  left  home  as  one  not  to  set  eyes  on  New  England 
again.  Since  then  there  has  been  no  time  till  now 
when  I  have  had  strength  to  endure  the  intellectual 


26  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

labor,  and  still  more  the  emotional  agitation,  which 
must  attend  such  a  review  of  mj  past  life.  Consump- 
tion, having  long  since  slain  almost  all  my  near  kins- 
folk, horsed  on  the  North-wind,  rode  at  me  also,  seeking 
my  life.  SAviftly  I  fled  hither,  hoping  in  this  little 
quiet  and  fair-skied  Island  of  the  Holy  Cross  to  hide  me 
from  his  monstrous  sight,  to  pull  his  arrows  from  my 
flesh,  and  heal  my  wounded  side.  It  is  yet  too  soon 
to  conjecture  how  or  when  my  exile  shall  end ;  but  at 
home,  Avise,  friendly  and  hopeful  doctors  told  me  I 
had  "  but  one  chance  in  ten  "  for  complete  recovery, 
though  more  for  a  partial  restoration  to  some  small 
slioAV  of  health,  I  suppose,  and  power  of  moderate 
work.  But  if  the  danger  be  as  they  say,  I  do  not 
despair  nor  lose  heart  at  such  odds,  having  often  in 
my  life  contended  against  much  greater,  and  come  off 
triumphant,  though  the  chances  against  me  Avere  a 
hundred  or  a  thousand  to  one.  Besides,  tliis  is  noAv 
the  third  time  that  I  remember  friends  and  doctors 
despairing  of  my  life.  Still,  I  know  that  I  am  no 
longer  young,  and  that  I  stand  up  to  my  shoulders  in 
my  grave,  AAdiose  uncertain  sides  at  any  moment  may 
cave  in  and  bur}"  me  Avith  their  resistless  Aveight.  Yet 
I  hope  to  climb  out  this  side,  and  Ha'c  and  Avork  again 
amid  laborious  Noav  England  men ;  for,  thoitgh  the 
flesh  be  Aveak  and  the  spirit  resigned  to  either  fate, 
yet  still  the  Will  to  live,  though  reverent  and  sub- 
missive, is    exceeding    stioiig,    more    A'cliemeut    than 


EXPEEIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  27 

ever  before,  as  I  have  still  mucli  to  do  —  some  things 
to  begin  upon,  and  many  more  lying  now  half  done, 
that  I  alone  can  finish — ■  and  I  should  not  like  to  sufier 
the  little  I  have  done  to  perish  now  for  lack  of  a  few 
years'  work. 

I  know  well  both  the  despondency  of  sick  men  that 
makes  the  night  seem  darker  than  it  is,  and  also  the 
pleasing  illusion  which  flits  before  consumptive  patients, 
and  while  this  Will-o'-the-Avisp  comes  flickering  from 
their  kindred's  grave,  they  think  it  is  the  breaking  of 
a  new  and  more  auspicious  day.  So  indeed  it  is,  the 
Day-spring  from  on  high,  revealing  the  white,  tall 
porches  of  Eternity.  Let  you  and  me  be  neither 
cheated  by  delusive  hopes,  nor  weakened  by  unmanly 
fears,  but,  looking  the  facts  fairly  in  the  face,  let  us 
meet  the  Inevitable  with  calmness  and  pious  joy,  sing- 
ing the  wealthy  Psalm  of  Life  : 

"  Give  to  the  ■winds  thy  fears ; 

Hope  and  be  undismayed  ! 
God  hears  thy  sighs  and  counts  thy  tears, 

God  shall  lift  up  thy  head ! 
Tho'  comprehended  not, 

Yet  Earth  and  Heaven  tell, 
He  sits  a  Father  on  the  throne : 

God  guideth  all  things  well ! " 

But  while  my  strength  is  but  weakness,  and  my 
time  for  this  Letter  so  uncertain,  I  Avill  waste  neither 
in  a  lengthened  introduction,  knowing  ''  it  were  a 
foolish  thing  to  make  a  long  prologue  and  be  short  in 
the  story  itself." 


28  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

In  this  Letter  I  must  needs  speak  much  of  myself, 
and  tcU  some  things  which  seem  to  belong  only  to  my 
private  history  ;  for  without  a  knowledge  of  them,  my 
public  conduct  might  appear  other  than  it  really  is. 
Yet  I  would  gladly  defer  them  to  a  more  fitting  place, 
in  some  brief  autobiography  to  be  published  after  my 
death ;  but  I  am  not  certain  of  time  to  prepare  that, 
so  shall  here,  in  small  compass,  briefly  sketch  out 
some  small  personal  particulars,  which  might  elsewhere 
be  j)resented  in  their  full  proportions,  and  with  appro- 
priate light  and  shade.  As  this  Letter  is  confidential 
and  addressed  only  to  you,  I  could  wish  it  might  be 
read  only  to  the  Members  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Con- 
gregational Society,  or  printed  solely  for  their  afiection, 
not  also  published  for  the  eye  of  the  world ;  but  that 
were  impossible,  for  what  is  off'ered  to  the  hearts  of 
so  many,  thereby  becomes  accessible  to  the  eyes  and 
ears  of  all  who  wish  to  see  and  hear ;  so  what  I  write 
private  to  you,  becomes  public  also  for  mankind, 
whether  I  will  or  not. 


In  my  early  boyhood  I  felt  I  was  to  be  a  minister, 
and  looked  forward  with  eager  longings  for  the  work 
to  which  I  still  think  my  nature  itself  an  "  effectual 
call,"  certainly  a  deep  one,  and  a  continuous.  Few 
men  have  ever  been  more  fortunate  than  I  in  having 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  29 

pains  judiciously  taken  Avith   their   intellectual    cul- 
ture. 

My  early  education  was  not  costly,  as  men  count 
expense  by  dollars;  it  was  exceeding  precious,  as  they 
might  reckon  outlay  by  the  fitness  of  the  process  to 
secure  a  development  of  natural  powers.  By  father 
and  mother,  yes,  even  by  brothers  and  sisters,  great  and 
unceasing  care  was  taken  to  secure  power  of  Obser- 
vation, that  the  senses  might  grasp  their  natural 
objects ;  of  voluntary  Attention,  fixed,  continuous 
and  exact,  which,  despite  of  appearances,  sees  the 
fact  just  as  it  is,  no  more,  no  less ;  of  Memory,  that 
holds  all  things  firm  as  gravitation,  and  yet,  like  that, 
keeps  them  unmixed,  not  confusing  the  most  delicate 
outline,  and  reproduces  them  at  will,  complete  in  the 
whole,  and  perfect  in  each  part ;  much  stress  also  was 
laid  on  Judgment  and  inventive  Imagination.  It  was 
a  great  game  they  set  me  to  play ;  it  was  also  an  ad- 
vantage that  the  counters  cost  little  money,  but  were 
common  things,  picked  up  daily  on  a  farm,  in  a  kitchen, 
or  a  mechanic's  thoughtful  shop.  But  still  more  pains 
were  taken  with  my  moral  and  religious  culture.  In 
my  earliest  boyhood  I  was  taught  to  respect  the  in- 
stinctive promptings  of  Conscience,  regarding  it  as  the 
"  Voice  of  God  in  the  Soul  of  Man,"  which  must 
always  be  obeyed;  to  speak  the  Truth  without 
evasion  or  concealment ;  to  love  Justice  and  conform 
to  it :  to  reverence  Merit  in  all  men,  and  that  regard- 
s' 


30  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

less  of  their  rank  or  reputation  ;  and,  above  all  things, 
I  was  taught  to  love  and  trust  the  dear  God.  He  was 
not  presented  to  me  as  a  great  King,  with  Force  for 
his  chief  quality,  but  rather  as  a  Father,  eminent  for 
perfect  Justice,  and  complete  and  perfect  Love,  alike 
the  parent  of  Jew  and  Gentile,  Christian  and  non-Chris- 
tian, dealing  with  all,  not  according  to  the  accident  of 
their  name  and  situation,  but  to  tlie  real  use  each 
should  make  of  his  talents  and  opportunities,  however 
little  or  great.  I  was  taught  Self-reliance,  intellectual, 
moral,  and  of  many  another  form ;  to  investigate  all 
things  with  my  own  eyes  ;  carefully  to  form  opinions 
for  myself,  and  while  I  believed  them  reasonable  and 
just,  to  hold  and  defend  them  with  modest  firmness. 
Inquiry  was  encouraged  in  all  directions. 

Of  course,  I  took  in  many  of  the  absurd  theological 
opinions  of  the  time  ;  but  I  think  few  New  Englanders 
born  of  religious  families  in  the  first  ten  years  of  this 
century,  were  formally  taught  so  little  Superstition. 
I  have  met  none  with  whom  more  judicious  attempts 
were  made  to  produce  a  natural  unfolding  of  the  re- 
ligious and  moral  faculties ;  I  do  not  speak  of  results, 
only  of  aim  and  process.  I  have  often  been  praised 
for  virtues  Avhich  really  belonged  to  my  father  and 
mother,  and  if  they  were  also  mine,  they  must  have 
come  so  easy  under  such  training,  that  I  should  feel 
entitled  to  but  small  merit  for  possessing  them.  They 
made  a  careful  distinction  between  a  man's  character 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  31 

and  his  creed,  and  in  my  hearing  never  spoke  a  bigoted 
or  irreverent  word. 

As  my  relatives  and  neighbors  were  all  hard-work- 
ing people,  living  in  one  of  the  most  laborious  com- 
munities in  the  world,  I  did  not  fail  to  learn  the  great 
lesson  of  personal  industry,  and  to  acquire  power  of 
Work  —  to  begin  early,  to  continue  long,  with  strong 
and  rapid  stroke.  The  discipline  and  habit  of  bodily 
toil  were  quite  easily  transferred  to  Thought,  and 
I  learned  early  to  apply  my  mind  with  exact,  active 
and  long-continued  attention,  which  outAvard  things 
did  not  disturb ;  so,  while  working  skilfully  with  my 
hands,  I  could  yet  think  on  what  I  would. 

Good  books  by  great  masters  fell  into  even  my 
boyish  hands ;  the  best  English  authors  of  prose  and 
verse,  the  Bible,  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics  — 
which  I.  at  first  read  mainly  in  translations,  but  soon 
became  familiar  with  in  their  original  beauty  —  these 
were  my  literary  helps.  What  was  read  at  all,  was 
also  studied,  and  not  laid  aside  till  well  understood. 
If  my  books  in  boyhood  were  not  many,  they  were 
much,  and  also  great. 

I  had  an  original  fondness  for  scientific  and  meta- 
physical Thought,  which  found  happy  encouragement 
in  my  early  days ;  my  father's  strong,  discriminating 
and  comprehensive  mind  also  inclining  that  way, 
offered  me  an  excellent  help.  Nature  was  all  about 
me ;  my  attention  was  wisely  directed  to  both  Use 


32  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

and  Beauty,  and  I  early  became  familiar  Mitli  the 
Flora  of  New  England,  and  attontivc  also  to  the  habits 
of  beast  and  bird,  insect,  reptile,  fish.  A  few  scientific 
works  on  Natural  History  gave  me  their-  stimulus  and 
their  help. 

After  my  general  preliminary  education  was  pretty 
Avoll  advanced,  the  hour  came  when  I  must  decide  on 
my  profession  for  life.  All  about  me  there  were 
ministers  who  liad  sufficient  talents ;  now  and  then 
one  admirably  endowed  with  learning ;  devout  and 
humane  men,  also,  with  no  stain  on  their  personal 
character.  But  I  did  not  see  much  in  the  clerical 
profession  to  attract  me  thither  ;  the  notorious  dul- 
ness  of  the  Sunday  services,  their  mechanical  char- 
acter, the  poverty  and  insignificance  of  the  sermons,  tlio 
unnaturalness  anduncertainty  of  the  doctrines  preached 
on  the  authority  of  a  "  divine  and  infallible  revelation," 
the  lifelessness  of  the  public  prayers,  and  the  conse- 
quent heedlessness  of  the  congregation,  all  tended 
to  turn  a  young  man  off  from  becoming  a  minister. 
Besides,  it  did  not  appear  that  the  New  England  clergy 
were  leaders  in  the  intellectual,  moral  or  religious 
progress  of  the  people ;  if  they  tried  to  seem  so,  it 
was  only  the  appearance  which  was  kept  up.  "  Do 
you  think  our  minister  would  dare  tell  his  audience 
of  their  actual  faults?" — -so  a  rough  blacksmith  once 
asked  me  in  my  youth.  "Certainly  I  do!"  was  the 
boyish  answer.     '' I riiiiij)h  !"   rejoined   the    smith,  "1 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  33 

should  like  to  have  him  begin,  then  ! "  The  genius  of 
Emerson  soon  moved  from  the  clerical  constellation 
and  stood  forth  alone,  a  fixed  and  solitary  star.  Dr. 
Channing  was  the  only  man  in  the  New  England  jDulpit 
who  to  me  seemed  great.  All  my  friends  advised  me 
against  the  ministry  —  it  was  '^  a  narrow  place,  afford- 
ing no  opportunity  to  do  much!"  I  thought  it  a 
wide  place. 

The  legal  profession  seemed  to  have  many  attrac- 
tions. There  were  eminent  men  in  its  ranks,  rising 
to  public  honors,  judicial  or  political ;  they  seemed 
to  have  more  freedom  and  individuality  than  the 
ministers.  For  some  time  I  hesitated,  inclined  that 
way,  and  made  preliminary  studies  in  the  Law.  But 
at  length  the  perils  of  that  profession  seemed  greater 
than  I  cared  to  rush  upon.  Mistaking  sound  for  sense, 
I  thought  the  lawyers'  moral  tone  was  lower  than  the 
ministers',  and  dared  not  put  myself  under  that  temp- 
tation I  prayed  God  not  to  lead  me  into,  I  could  not 
make  up  my  mind  to  defend  a  cause  I  knew  to  be 
wrong,  using  all  my  efforts  to  lead  judge  or  jury  to  a 
decision  I  thought  unjust.  A  powerful  and  successful 
practitioner  told  me  "  none  could  be  a  lawyer  without 
doing  so,"  and  quoted  the  well-known  words  of  Lord 
Brougham.  I  saw  men  of  large  talents  yielding  to 
this  temptation,  and  counting  as  great  success  what  to 
me  even  then  seemed  only  great  ruin.  I  could  not 
decide  to  set  up  a  Law-mill  beside  the  public  road,  to 


34  TTIEODOIJE    PAHKEPi's 

put  my  liand  on  tlio  "wincli,  and,  by  turning  one  way, 
rob  innocent  men  of  tlioir  property,  liberty,  life ;  or, 
b\'  reversing  the  motion,  withdraw  the  guilty  from 
just  punishment,  pecuniary  or  corporeal.  Though  I 
hesitated  some  time,  soon  as  I  got  clearness  of  sight, 
I  returned  to  my  first  love,  for  that  seemed  free  from 
guile.     I  then  asked  myself  these  three  questions  : 

1.  ''  Can  you  seek  for  what  is  Eternally  True,  and 
not  be  blinded  by  the  opinions  of  any  sect,  or  of  the 
Christian  Church ;  and  can  you  tell  that  Truth  you 
learn,  even  when  it  is  unpopular  and  hated?"  I  an- 
swered, "  I  CAN  !  "     Rash  youth  is  ever  confident. 

2.  "  Can  you  seek  the  Eternal  Right,  and  not  be 
blinded  by  the  statutes  and  customs  of  men,  eccle- 
siastical, political  and  social ;  and  can  you  declare  that 
Eternal  Right  you  discover,  applying  it  to  the  actual 
life  of  man,  individual  and  associated,  though  it  bring 
you  into  painful  relations  with  men?"  Again,  I  sAviftly 
answered,  ''  I  can  !" 

3.  "Can  you  represent  in  your  life  that  Truth  of  the 
intellect  and  that  Right  of  the  conscience,  and  so  not 
disgrace  Avith  your  character  what  you  preach  with 
your  lips?"  I  doubted  of  this  more  than  the  others  ; 
the  temptation  to  personal  Avickcdness  seemed  stronger 
than  that  to  professional  deceit  —  at  least  it  Avas  then 
better  known;  but  I  answered,  "I  can  try,  and  will!" 

Alas  !  I  little  knew  all  that  was  involved  in  these 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  35 

three  questions,  and  their  prompt,  youthful  answers. 
I  understand  it  better  now. 

So  I  determined  to  become  a  minister,  hoping  to 
help  mankind  in  the  most  important  of  all  human  con- 
cerns, the  development  of  man's  highest  powers. 

Zealously  I  entered  on  my  Theological  Education, 
with  many  ill-defined  doubts,  and  some  distinct  de- 
nials, of  the  chief  doctrines  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Theology  of  Christendom. 

1.  In  my  early  childhood,  after  a  severe  but 
silent  struggle,  I  made  way  with  the  ghastly  doc- 
trine of  Eternal  Damnation  and  a  Wrathful  God ;  this 
is  the  Goliath  of  that  Theology.  From  my  seventh 
year  I  have  had  no  Fear  of  God,  only  an  ever- 
greatening  Love  and  Trust. 

2.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  "  great  mys- 
tery of  Revelation,"  had  long  since  gone  the  same 
road.  For  a  year,  though  born  and  bred  among 
Unitarians,  I  had  attended  the  preachings  of  Dr. 
Lyman  Beecher,  the  most  powerful  Orthodox  minis- 
ter in  NeAv  England,  then  in  the  full  blaze  of  his 
talents  and  reputation,  and  stirred  also  with  polemic 
zeal  against  '^  Unitarians,  Universalists,  Papists,  and 
Infidels."  I  went  through  one  of  his  "  protracted 
meetings,"  listening  to  the  fiery  words  of  excited 
men,  and  hearing  the  most  frightful  doctrines  set 
forth    in    sermon,    song,    and     pra}^cr.       I    greatly 


36  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

respected  the  talents,  the  zeal,  and  the  enterprise 
of  that  able  man,  who  certainly  taught  me  much, 
but  I  came  away  with  no  confidence  in  his  The- 
ology 5  the  better  I  understood  it,  the  more  self- 
contradictory,  unnatural,  and  hateful  did  it  seem. 
A  year  of  his  preaching  about  finished  all  my  respect 
for  the  Calvinistic  Scheme  of  Theology. 

3.  I  had  found  no  evidence  Avliich  to  me  could 
authorize  a  belief  in  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  The  two-fold  biblical  testimony  was 
all ;  that  was  contradictory  and  good  for  nothing ;  we 
had  not  the  Affidavit  of  the  Mother,  the  only  com- 
petent human  witness,  nor  even  the  Declaration  of 
the  Son ;  there  was  no  circumstantial  evidence  to 
confirm  the  statement  in  the  Gospels  of  a  most  im- 
probable event. 

4.  Many  miracles  related  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  seemed  incredible  to  me ;  some  were 
clearly  impossible,  others  ridiculous,  and  a  few  Averc 
wicked :  such,  of  course,  I  rejected  at  once,  while  I 
still  arbitrarily  admitted  others.  The  general  Ques- 
tion of  Miracles  was  one  Avhich  gave  me  much  un- 
easiness, for  I  had  not  learned  carefully  to  examine 
evidence  for  alleged  historical  events,  and  had,  be- 
sides, no  clear  conception  of  what  is  involved  in  the 
notion  that  God  ever  violates  the  else  constant 
mode  of  operation  of  the  Universe.  Of  course  I 
had  not  then  that    philosophical  idea  of  God  Avhich 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  37 

makes  a  theological  miracle  as  impossible  as  a  round 
triangle,  or  anj  other  self-evident  contradiction. 

5.  I  had  no  belief  in  the  plenary,  infallible,  verbal 
inspiration  of  the  whole  Bible,  and  strong  doubts  as 
to  the  miraculous  inspiration  of  any  part  of  it. 
Some  things  were  the  opposite  of  divine ;  I  could 
not  put  my  finger  on  any  great  moral  or  religious 
truth  taught  by  revelation  in  the  New  Testament, 
which  had  not  previously  been  set  forth  by  men 
for  whom  no  miraculous  help  was  ever  claimed. 
But,  on  the  whole  matter  of  Inspiration,  I  lacked 
clear  and  definite  ideas,  and  found  neither  friend 
nor  book  to  help  me. 

In  due  time  I  entered  the  Theological  School  at 
Cambridge,  then  under  the  charge  of  the  Unitarians, 
or  "  Liberal  Christians."  I  found  excellent  oppor- 
tunities for  study :  there  were  able  and  earnest  pro- 
fessors, who  laid  no  yoke  on  any  neck,  but  left  each 
man  free  to  think  for  himself,  and  come  to  such 
conclusions  as  he  must.  Telling  what  they  thought 
they  knew,  they  never  pretended  they  had  learned 
all  that  may  be  known,  or  winnowed  out  all  error 
from  their  creed.  They  were  honest  guides,  with 
no  more  sophistry  than  is  perhaps  almost  universal 
in  that  calling,  and  did  not  pretend  to  be  masters. 
There,  too,  was  a  large  library  containing  much 
valuable  ancient  lore,  though,  alas  !  almost  none  of 
4 


38  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

the  new  thcologic  thought  of  the  German  masters. 
Besides,  there  was  leisure,  and  unbounded  freedom 
of  research ;  and  I  could  work  as  many  hours  in 
the  study  as  a  mechanic  in  liis  shop,  or  a  farmer  in 
his  field.  The  pulpits  of  Boston  were  within  an 
easy  walk,  and  Dr.  Channing  drew  near  the  zenith 
of  his  power. 

Here,  under  these  influences,  I  j^ursued  the  usual 
routine  of  theological  reading,  but  yet,  of  course, 
had  my  own  private  studies,  suited  to  my  special 
wants.  It  is  noAV  easy  to  tell  what  I  then  attempted 
without  always  being  conscious  of  my  aim,  and 
what  results  I  gradually  reached  before  I  settled  in 
the  ministry. 

I.  I  studied  the  Bible  with  much  care.  First,  I 
wished  to  learn.  What  is  Bible — what  books  and  words 
compose  it  ?  this  is  the  question  of  Criticism ;  next, 
What  does  the  Bible  mean  — ■  what  Sentiments  and 
Ideas  do  its  words  contain?  this  is  the  question  of 
Interpretation,  I  read  the  Bible  critically,  in  its 
original  tongues,  the  most  important  parts  of  it  also 
in  the  early  versions,  and  sought  for  the  meaning 
early  attributed  to  its  words,  and  so  studied  the 
^vorks  of  Jewish  Rabbis  on  the  Old  Testament,  and 
of  the  early  Christian  Fathers  on  both  New  and 
Old ;  besides,  I  studied  carefully  the  latest  critics 
and  interpreters,  especially  the  German. 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  30 

I  soon  found  that  the  Bible  is  a  collection  of  quite  het- 
erogeneous books,  most  of  them  anonymous,  or  bearing- 
names  of  doubtful  authors,  collected,  none  knows  hoAv, 
or  when,  or  by  whom ;  united  more  by  caprice  than 
any  philosophic  or  historic  method,  so  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  see  why  one  ancient  book  is  kept  in  the  Canon 
and  another  kept  out.  I  found  no  Unity  of  Doctrine 
in  the  several  parts ;  the  Old  Testament  "  reveals" 
one  form  of  religion,  and  the  New  Testament  one 
directly  its  opposite  ;  and  in  the  New  Testament  itself, 
I  found  each  writer  had  his  own  individuality,  which 
appears  not  only  in  the  style,  the  form  of  thought,  but 
quite  as  much  in  the  doctrines,  the  substance  of 
thought,  where  no  two  are  well  agreed. 

Connected  with  this  biblical  study,  came  the  ques- 
tion of  Inspiration  and  of  Miracles.  I  still  inconsis- 
tently believed,  or  half  believed,  in  the  direct  miracu- 
lous interposition  of  God,  from  time  to  time,  to  set 
things  right  which  else  went  wrong,  though  I  found 
no  historic  or  philosophic  reason  for  limiting  it  to  the 
affairs  of  Jews  and  Christians,  or  the  early  ages  of  the 
Church.  The  whole  matter  of  Miracles  was  still  a 
puzzle  to  me,  and  for  a  long  time  a  source  of  anxiety ; 
for  I  had  not  studied  the  principles  of  historic  evi- 
dence, nor  learned  to  identify  and  scrutinize  the  wit- 
nesses. But  the  problem  of  Inspiration  got  sooner 
solved.  I  believed  in  the  Immanence  of  God  in  man, 
as  well  as  matter,  his  activity  in  both ;  hence,  that  ah 


40  THEODORE    PARKEll'S 

meu  arc  inspired  in  proportion  to  their  actual  powers 
and  their  normal  use  thereof;  that  Truth  is  tlie  test  of 
intellectual  inspiration,  Justice  of  moral,  and  so  on. 
I  did  not  find  the  Bible  inspired,  except  in  tliis  general 
way,  and  in  proportion  to  the  Truth  and  Justice 
therein.  It  seemed  to  me  that  no  part  of  the  Old 
Testament  or  Ncav  could  be  called  the  "  Word  of  God," 
save  in  the  sense  that  all  Truth  is  God's  word. 

II.  I  studied  the  Historical  Development  of  Reli- 
gion and  Theology  amongst  Jews  and  Christians,  and 
saw  the  gradual  formation  of  the  great  ecclesiastical 
doctrines  which  so  domineered  over  the  world.  As  I 
found  the  Bible  was  the  work  of  men,  so  I  also  found 
that  the  Christian  Church  was  no  more  divine  than  tlie 
British  State,  a  Dutchman's  Shop  or  an  Austrian's 
Farm.  The  miraculous,  infallible  Bible,  and  the  mirac- 
ulous, infallible  Church,  disappeared  when  they  were 
closely  looked  at ;  and  I  found  the  Fact  of  History 
quite  different  from  the  pretension  of  Theology. 

III.  I  studied  the  Historical  Development  of  Reli- 
gion and  Tlieology  amongst  tlie  nations  not  Jewish  or 
Christian,  and  attended  as  well  as  I  then  could  to  the 
four  other  great  religious  sects  —  the  Brahmanic,  the 
Buddhistic,  the  Classic  and  the  Mohammedan.  As 
far  as  possible  at  that  time,  I  studied  the  Sacred 
Books  of  mankind  in  their  original  tongues,  and  Avith 
the  help  of  the  most  faithful  interpreters.  Here  tlie 
Greek  and  Roman  poets  and  philosopliers  came  in  for 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  41 

their  place,  there  being  no  Sacred  Books  of  the  Classic 
nations.  I  attended  pretty  carefully  to  the  religion 
of  Savages  and  Barbarians,  and  was  thereby  helped 
to  the  solution  of  many  a  difficult  problem.  I  found 
no  tribe  of  men  destitute  of  religion  who  had  attained 
power  of  articulate  speech. 

TV.  I  studied  assiduously  the  Metaphysics  and 
l\ychology  of  Religion.  Religious  consciousness  was 
uni^'ersal  in  human  history.  "Was  it  then  natural  to 
man^  inseparable  from  his  essence,  and  so  from  his 
development?  In  my  own  consciousness  I  found  it 
automatic  and  indispensable  ;  was  it  really  so  likewise 
in  the  Human  Race  ?  The  authority  of  Bibles  and 
Churches  was  no  answer  to  that  question.  I  tried 
to  make  an  analysis  of  Humanity,  and  see  if  by  ps)'- 
chologic  science  I  could  detect  the  special  element 
which  produced  religious  consciousness  in  me,  and 
religions  phenomena  in  mankind,  —  seeking  a  cause 
adequate  to  the  facts  of  experience  and  observation. 
The  common  books  of  philosophy  seemed  quite  insuffi- 
cient ;  the  Sensational  System,  so  ably  presented  by 
Locke  in  his  masterly  Essay,  developed  into  various 
forms  by  Hobbes,  Berkely,  Hume,  Paley  and  the 
French  Materialists,  and  moditied,  but  not  much 
mended,  by  Reid  and  Stewart,  gave  little  help ;  it 
could  not  legitimate  my  own  religious  instincts,  nor 
explain  the  religious  history  of  mankind,  or  even  of 
the  British  people,  to  whom  that  philosophy  is  still  so 
4* 


42  THEODORE  parkp:r's 

manifold  a  hindrance.  Ecclesiastical  Avriters,  though 
able  as  Clarke  and  Butler,  and  learned  also  as  Cudworth 
and  Barrow,  could  not  solve  the  difficulty ;  for  the 
Principle  of  Authority,  though  more  or  less  concealed, 
yet  lay  there,  and,  like  buried  iron,  disturbed  the  free 
action  of  their  magnetic  genius,  affecting  its  dip  and 
inclination.  The  brilliant  Mosaic,  which  Cousin  set 
before  the  world,  was  of  great  service,  but  not  satis- 
factory. I  found  most  helj)  in  the  works  of  Immanuel 
Kant,  one  of  the  profoundest  thinkers  in  the  world, 
though  one  of  the  worst  writers,  even  of  Germany ; 
if  he  did  not  always  furnish  conclusions  I  could  rest 
in,  he  yet  gave  me  the  true  method,  and  put  me  on 
the  right  road. 

I  found  certain  great  primal  Intuitions  of  Human 
Nature,  which  depend  on  no  logical  process  of 
demonstration,  but  are  rather  facts  of  consciousness 
given  by  the  instinctive  action  of  human  nature 
itself.  I  will  mention  only  the  three  most  important 
which  pertain  to  Religion. 

1.  The  Instinctive  Intuition  of  the  Divine,  the  con- 
sciousness that  there  is  a  God. 

2.  The  Instinctive  Intuition  of  the  Just  and  Right, 
a  consciousness  that  there  is  a  Moral  Law,  indepen- 
dent of  our  will,  which  we  ought  to  keep. 

3.  The  Instinctive  Intuition  of  the  Immortal,  a 
consciousness  that  the  Essential  Element  of  man,  the 
principle  of  Individuality,  never  dies. 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  43 

Here,  then,  was  the  foundation  of  Religion,  laid  in 
human  nature  itself,  which  neither  the  atheist  nor 
the  more  pernicious  bigot,  with  their  sophisms  of 
denial  or  affirmation,  could  move,  or  even  shake.  I 
had  gone  through  the  great  spiritual  trial  of  my  life, 
telling  no  one  of  its  hopes  or  fears,  and  I  thought  it  a 
triumph  that  I  had  psychologically  established  these 
three  things  to  my  own  satisfaction,  and  devised  a 
scheme  which  to  the  scholar's  mind,  I  thought,  could 
legitimate  what  was  spontaneously  given  to  all,  by 
the  great  primal  Instincts  of  Mankind. 

Then  I  proceeded  to  develop  the  contents  of  these 
instinctive  intuitions  of  the  Divine,  the  Just  and  the 
Immortal,  and  see  what  God  actually  is,  what  Morality 
is,  and  Avhat  Eternal  Life  has  to  offer.  In  each  case 
I  pursued  two  methods — the  inductive  and  deductive. 

First,  from  the  History  of  Mankind — savage,  bar- 
barous, civilized,  enlightened — 'I  gathered  the  most 
significant  facts  I  could  find  relating  to  men's  opinions 
about  God,  Morality,  Heaven  and  Hell,  and  thence 
made  such  generalizations  as  the  facts  would  warrant, 
which,  however,  were  seldom  satisfactory ;  for  they 
did  not  represent  Facts  of  the  Universe,  the  actual 
God,  Justice  and  Eternal  Life,  but  only  what  men  had 
thought  or  felt  thereof;  yet  this  Comparative  and 
Inductive  Theology  was  of  great  value  to  me. 

Next,  from  the  primitive  Facts  of  Consciousness, 
given  by  the  power  of  instinctive  intuition,  I  endeav- 


44  THEODORE   PARKER^S 

creel  to  deduce  the  true  notion  of  God,  of  Justice 
and  Futurity.  Here  I  could  draAv  from  Human  Nature, 
and  not  be  hindered  by  tlic  limitations  of  Human 
History ;  but  I  know  now  better  than  it  was  possible 
then,  how  difficult  is  this  Avork,  and  how  often  the  in- 
quirer mistakes  his  own  subjective  imagination  for  a 
fact  of  the  universe.  It  is  for  others  to  decide 
whether  I  have  sometimes  mistaken  a  little  grain  of 
brilliant  dust  in  my  telescope  for  a  fixed  star  in 
Heaven. 

To  learn  what  I  could  about  the  spiritual  faculties 
of  man,  I  not  only  studied  the  Sacred  Books  of 
various  nations,  the  poets  and  the  philosophers  who 
professedly  treat  thereof,  but  also  such  as  deal  Avith 
sleep-walking,  dreams,  visions,  prophecies,  second- 
sight,  oracles,  ecstasies,  witchcraft,  magic,  wonders, 
the  appearance  of  devils,  ghosts,  and  the  like.  Be- 
sides, I  studied  other  works  which  lie  out  from  the 
regular  highway  of  theology,  the  spurious  books  attri- 
buted to  famous  Jews  or  Christians,  the  Pseudepigra- 
phy  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Apocrypha  of  the 
New,  with  the  strange  fantasies  of  the  Neoplatonists  and 
Gnostics.  I  did  not  neglect  the  writings  of  the  Mys- 
tics, though  at  that  time  I  could  only  make  a  begin- 
ning with  the  more  famous  or  most  tenderly  religious  ; 
I  was  much  attracted  to  this  class  of  men,  who  devel- 
oped the  element  of  Piety,  regardless  of  the  theologic 
ritualism  of  the  Church,  the  philosophic  discipline  of 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A    MINISTER.  45 

the  Schools,  or  the  practical  morality  of  common  life. 
By  this  process,  I  not  only  learned  much  of  the  abnor- 
mal action  of  the  human  spirit,  and  saw  how  often  a 
mere  fancy  passes  for  fact,  and  a  dreamer's  subjective 
whim  bestrides  some  great  harbor  of  the  world  for  a 
thousand  years,  obstructing  all  tall  ships,  until  an 
earthquake  throws  it  down ;  but  I  also  gleaned  up 
many  a  precious  flower  which  bloomed  unseen  in  those 
waste  places  of  literature,  and  was  unknown  to  the 
authorized  floras  of  the  School  or  Church. 

I  left  the  Theological  School  with  reluctance,  con- 
scious of  knowing  so  little  of  what  I  must  presently 
teach,  and  wishing  more  years  for  research  and 
thought.  Of  course  my  first  sermons  were  only  imita- 
tions ;  and,  even  if  the  thought  might,  perhaps,  be 
original,  the  form  was  old,  the  stereotype  of  the  pulpit. 
I  preached  with  fear  and  trembling,  and  wondered 
that  old  and  mature  persons,  rich  in  the  experience  of 
life,  should  listen  to  a  young  man,  who  might,  indeed, 
have  read  and  thought,  but  yet  had  had  no  time  to 
live  much  and  know  things  by  heart.  I  took  all  pos- 
sible pains  with  the  matter  of  the  discourse,  and 
always  appealed  to  the  religious  instinct  in  mankind. 
At  the  beginning  I  resolved  to  preach  the  Natural 
Laws  of  man  as  they  are  writ  in  his  constitution,  no 
less  and  no  more.  After  preaching  a  few  months  in 
various  places,  and  feeling  my  way  into  the  conscious- 


46  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

ness  of  men,  I  determined  to  preach  nothing  as  Reh- 
gion  Avhich  I  had  not  experienced  inwardly,  and  made 
my  own,  knowing  it  by  heart.  Thus,  not  only  the  in- 
tellectual, but  also  the  religious  part  of  my  sermons 
would  rest  on  facts  that  I  was  sure  of,  and  not  on  the 
words  of  another.  I  was  indebted  to  another  young 
candidate  for  the  hint.  I  hope  I  have  not  been  faith- 
less to  the  early  vow.  A  study  of  the  English  State 
Trials,  and  a  careful  analysis  of  the  arguments  of  the 
great  speeches  therein,  helped  me  to  clearness  of  ar- 
rangement, and  distinctness  in  the  use  of  terms. 
Here  and  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  orations  I  got  the 
best  jiart  of  my  rhetorical  culture. 


On  the  longest  day  of  1837,  I  was  ordained  min- 
ister of  the  Unitarian  Church  and  ConQ-regation  at 
West  Roxbury,  a  little  village  near  Boston,  one  of  the 
smallest  societies  in  New  England,  where  I  found  men 
and  women  whose  friendship  is  still  dear  and  instruct- 
ive. I  had  thought  freely,  and  freely  preached  what 
I  thought ;  none  had  ever  questioned  my  right.  At 
the  Theological  School,  the  professors  were  then  teach- 
ers to  instruct,  not  also  inquisitors  to  torture  and  to 
damn ;  satisfied  of  the  religious  character  of  the 
pupils,  they  left  each  to  develop  his  own  free  spiritual 
individuality,  resjionsible  only  to  his  own  Conscience 
and  his  God.     It  was  then  the  boast  of  the  little  Uni- 


EXPEEIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  47 

tarian  party,  that  it  respected  individuality,  freedom 
of  thought  and  freedom  of  speech,  and  had  neither 
Inquisitors  nor  Pope.  Great  diversity  of  opinion  pre- 
vailed amongst  Unitarians,  ministers  and  laymen,  but 
the  Unity  of  Religion  was  more  thought  of  than  the 
Variety  of  Theology.  At  ordinations,  for  some  years, 
their  Councils  had  ceased  to  inquire  into  the  sj^ecial 
opinions  of  the  candidate,  leaving  him  and  the  Society 
electing  to  settle  the  matter.  The  first  principle  of 
Congregationalism  certainly  requires  this  course.  As 
a  sect,  the  Unitarians  had  but  one  distinctive  doctrine 
— the  Unity  of  God  without  the  Trinity  of  Persons. 
Christendom  said,  ''  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  Jehovah  of 
Hosts  !"  The  Unitarians  answered, ''  He  is  not !"  At 
my  ordination,  none  of  the  Council  offered  to  catechize 
me,  or  wished  to  interfere  with  what  belonged  to  me 
and  the  Congregation,  and  that  probably  thought  of 
my  Piety  and  Morality  more  than  of  the  special  The- 
ology which  even  then  rode  therewith  in  the  same 
panniers.  The  able  and  earnest  ministers  who 
preached  the  Sermon,  delivered  the  Charge,  and  gave 
me  the  Right-hand  of  Fellowship,  all  recommended 
study,  investigation,  originality,  freedom  of  thought 
and  openness  of  speech,  as  well  as  humanity,  and  a 
life  of  personal  religiousness.  One,  in  his  ordaining 
prayer,  his  hand  on  my  head,  put  up  the  petition, "  that 
no  fondness  for  literature  or  science,  and  no  favorite 
studies  may  ever  lead  this  young  man  from  learning 


48  THEODORE    PARKER's 

the  true  religion,  and  preaching  it  for  the  salvation  of 
mankind  !"  Most  heartily  did  I  say  ''  Amen  !"  to  this 
supplication. 

For  the  first  year  or  two  the  congregation  did  not 
exceed  seventy  persons,  including  the  children.  I 
soon  became  well  acquainted  with  all  in  the  little 
parish,  where  I  found  some  men  of  rare  enlighten- 
ment, some  truly  generous  and  noble  souls.  I  knew 
the  characters  of  all,  and  the  thoughts  of  such  as  had 
them.  I  took  great  pains  with  the  composition  of  my 
sermons  ;  they  were  never  out  of  my  mind.  I  had 
an  intense  delight  in  writing  and  preaching ;  but  I 
was  a  learner  quite  as  much  as  a  teacher,  and  was 
feeling  my  way  forward  and  upward  with  one  hand, 
Avhile  I  tried  to  lead  men  with  the  other.  I  preached 
Natural  Laws,  nothing  on  the  authority  of  any  church, 
any  tradition,  any  sect,  though  I  sought  illustration 
and  confirmation  from  all  these  sources.  For  histor- 
ical things,  I  told  the  historical  evidence  ;  for  spiritual 
things,  I  found  ready  proof  in  the  primal  instincts  of 
the  Soul,  and  confirmation  in  the  life  of  religious  men. 
The  simple  life  of  the  farmers,  mechanics  and  milk- 
men about  me,  of  its  own  accord,  turned  into  a  sort  of 
poetry,  and  re-appeared  in  the  sermons,  as  the  green 
woods,  not  far  off,  hooked  in  at  the  windows  of  the 
Meeting  House.  I  think  I  preached  only  what  I 
had  experienced  in  my  own  inward  consciousness, 
which  widened  and  grew  richer  as  I  came  into  prac- 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A  MINISTER.  49 

tical  contact  with  living  men,  turned  time  into  life, 
and  mere  thought  became  character. 

But  I  had  much  leisure  for  my  private  humanitarian 
and  philosophic  studies.  One  of  the  Professors  in  the 
Theological  School  had  advised  against  my  settling 
''  in  so  small  a  place,"  and  warned  me  against  "  the 
seductions  of  an  easy  chair,"  telling  me  I  must  become 
a  '^  minister  at  large  for  all  mankind,"  and  do  with  the 
pen  what  I  could  not  with  the  voice.  I  devoted  my 
spare  time  to  hard  study.  To  work  ten  or  fifteen 
hours  a  day  in  my  literary  labors,  was  not  only  a  habit, 
but  a  pleasure  ;  with  zeal  and  delight  I  applied  myself 
anew  to  the  great  theological  problems  of  the  age. 

Many  circumstances  favored  both  studious  pursuits 
and  the  formation  of  an  independent  character.  The 
years  of  my  preliminary  theological  study,  and  of  my 
early  ministry,  fell  in  the  most  interesting  period  of 
New  England's  spiritual  history,  when  a  great  revolu- 
tion went  on, — so  silent  that  few  men  knew  it  was 
taking  place,  and  none  then  understood  its  whither 
or  its  whence. 

The  Unitarians,  after  a  long  and  bitter  controversy, 
in  which  they  were  often  shamelessly  ill-treated  by 
the  "  Orthodox,"  had  conquered,  and  secured  their 
ecclesiastical  right  to  deny  the  Trinity,  "  the  Achilles 
of  dogmas;"  they  had  won  the  respect  of  the  New 
England  public ;  had  absorbed  most  of  the  religious 
5 


50  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

talent  of  Massachusetts,  founded  many  churches,  and 
possessed  and  hberally  administered  the  oldest  and 
richest  College  in  America.  Not  yet  petrified  into  a 
sect,  they  rejoiced  in  the  large  liberty  of  "  the  chil- 
dren of  God,"  and,  owning  neither  racks  nor  dungeons, 
did  not  covet  any  of  those  things  that  were  their 
neighbors'.  "With  less  education  and  literary  skill, 
the  Universalists  had  fought  manfully  against  Eternal 
Damnation  —  the  foulest  doctrine  which  defiles  the 
pages  of  man's  theologic  history, — secured  their  eccle- 
siastical position,  wiping  malignant  statutes  from  the 
Law  Books,  and,  though  in  a  poor  and  vulgar  way, 
were  popularizing  the  great  truth  that  God's  chief 
attribute  is  Love,  which  is  extended  to  all  men.  Alone 
of  all  Christian  sects,  they  professedly  taught  the  Im- 
mortality of  man  in  such  a  form  that  it  is  no  curse 
to  the  race  to  find  it  true  !  But,  though  departing 
from  those  doctrines  which  are  essential  to  the  Chris- 
tian ecclesiastic  scheme,  neither  Universalist  nor  Uni- 
tarian had  broken  with  the  authority  of  Revelation, 
the  word  of  the  Bible,  but  still  professed  a  willingness 
to  believe  both  Trinity  and  Damnation,  could  they  be 
found  in  the  miraculous  and  infallible  Scripture. 

Mr.  Garrison,  with  his  friends,  inheriting  what  was 
best  in  the  Puritan  founders  of  New  England,  fired 
with  the  zeal  of  the  Hebrew  Prophets  and  Christian 
ISfartyrs,  while  they  were  animated  with  a  S^jirit  of 
Humanity  rarely  found  in  any  of  the  three,  was  begin- 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  51 

iling  his  noble  work,  but  in  a  style  so  humble  that, 
after  much  search,  the  police  of  Boston  discovered 
there  was  nothing  dangerous  in  it,  for  "  his  only 
visible  auxiliary  was  a  negro  boy."  Dr.  Channing 
was  in  the  full  maturity  of  his  powers,  and,  after  long 
preaching  the  Dignity  of  Man  as  an  abstraction,  and 
Piety  as  a  purely  inward  life,  with  rare  and  winsome 
eloquence,  and  ever  progressive  humanity,  began  to 
apply  his  sublime  doctrines  to  actual  life  in  the  Indi- 
vidual, the  State,  and  the  Church.  In  the  name  of 
Christianity,  the  great  American  Unitarian  called  for 
the  reform  of  the  drunkard,  the  elevation  of  the  poor, 
the  instruction  of  the  ignorant,  and,  above  all,  for  the 
liberation  of  the  American  slave.  A  remarkable  man, 
his  instinct  of  progress  grew  stronger  the  more  he 
travelled,  and  the  further  he  went,  for  he  surrounded 
himself  with  young  life.  Horace  Mann,  with  his  co- 
adjutors, began  a  great  movement,  to  improve  the 
public  education  of  the  people.  Pierpont,  single- 
handed,  was  fighting  a  grand  and  twofold  battle  — 
against  drunkenness  in  the  street,  and  for  righteous- 
ness in  the  pulpit — against  fearful  ecclesiastic  odds, 
maintaining  a  minister's  right  and  duty  to  oppose 
actual  wickedness,  however  popular  and  destructive. 
The  brilliant  genius  of  Emerson  rose  in  the  winter 
nights,  and  hung  over  Boston,  drawing  the  eyes  of 
ingenuous  young  people  to  look  up  to  that  great,  new 
star,  a  beauty  and  a  mystery,  which  charmed  for  the 


52  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

moment,  while  it  gave  also  perennial  inspiration,  as  it 
led  them  forward  along  new  paths,  and  toward  new 
hopes.  America  had  seen  no  such  sight  before ;  it 
is  not  less  a  blessed  wonder  now. 

Besides,  the  Phrenologists,  so  ably  represented  by 
Spurzheim  and  Combe,  were  weakening  the  power  of 
the  old  Supernaturalism,  leading  men  to  study  the 
Constitution  of  Man  more  wisely  than  before,  and  lay- 
ing the  foundation  on  which  many  a  beneficent  struc- 
ture was  soon  to  rise.  The  writings  of  "Wordsworth 
were  becoming  familiar  to  the  thoughtful  lovers  of 
nature  and  of  man,  and  drawing  men  to  natural  piety, 
Carlyle's  works  got  reprinted  at  Boston,  difiusing  a 
strong,  and  then,  also,  a  healthy  influence  on  old 
and  young.  The  writings  of  Coleridge  were  reprinted 
in  America,  all  of  them  "  Aids  to  Reflection,"  and 
brilliant  with  the  scattered  sparks  of  genius ;  they 
incited  many  to  think,  more  especially  young  Trini- 
tarian ministers ;  and,  spite  of  the  lack  of  both  his- 
toric and  philosophic  accuracy,  and  the  utter  absence 
of  all  proportion  in  his  writings ;  spite  of  his  haste, 
his  vanity,  prejudice,  sophistry,  confusion,  and  opium 
— ho  yet  did  great  service  in  New  England,  helping 
emancipate  enthralled  minds.  The  works  of  Cousin, 
more  systematic,  and  more  profound  as  a  whole,  and 
far  more  catholic  and  comprehensive,  continental,  not 
insular,  in  his  range,  also  became  familiar  to  Americans, 
— reviews  and  translations  going  where  the  eloquent 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  53 

origina]  w.is  not  heard — and  helped  free  the  young 
mind  from  the  gross  Sensationahsm  of  the  academic 
Philosophy  on  one  side,  and  the  grosser  Supernatural- 
ism  of  the  ecclesiastic  Theology  on  the  other. 

The  German  language,  hitherto  the  priceless  treas- 
ure of  a  few,  was  becoming  well  known,  and  many 
were  thereby  made  acquainted  with  the  most  original, 
deep,  bold,  comprehensive  and  wealthy  literature  in 
the  world,  full  of  theologic  and  philosophic  thought. 
Thus,  a  great  storehouse  was  opened  to  such  as  were 
earnestly  in  quest  of  Truth.  Young  Mr.  Strauss,  in 
whom  genius  for  criticism  was  united  with  extraordi- 
nary learning  and  rare  facility  of  philosophic  speech, 
"wrote  his  "  Life  of  Jesus,"  where  he  rigidly  scruti- 
nized the  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels  and  the  Authen- 
ticity of  their  contents,  and,  with  scientific  calmness, 
brought  every  statement  to  his  steady  scales,  weigh- 
ing it,  not  always  justly,  as  I  think,  but  impartially 
always,  with  philosophic  coolness  and  deliberation. 
The  most  formidable  assailant  of  the  ecclesiastical 
theology  of  Christendom,  he  roused  a  host  of  foes 
whose  writings — mainly  ill-tempered,  insolent  and 
sophistical  —  it  was  yet  profitable  for  a  young  man  to 
read. 

The  value  of  Christian  miracles,  not  the  question  of 

fact,   was   discnssed  at  Boston,  as  never   before   in 

America.     Prophecy  had   been  thought  the    Jachin, 

and  Miracles   the   Boaz,  whereon  alone  Christianity 

5* 


54  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

could  rest ;  but,  said  some,  if  both  be  shaken  down, 
the  Lord's  house  will  not  flill !  The  claims  of  eccle- 
siastical tradition  came  up  to  be  settled  anew ;  and 
young  men,  walking  solitary  through  the  moonlight, 
asked,  "Which  is  to  be  permanent  master — a  single 
Accident  in  Human  History,  nay,  perchance  only  the 
"Whim  of  some  anonymous  dreamer,  or  the  Substance 
of  Human  Nature,  greatening  with  continual  develop- 
ment, and 

'  Not  without  access  of  unexpected  strength  ? ' " 

The  question  was  also  its  answer. 

The  Rights  of  Labor  were  discussed  with  deep 
philanthropic  feeling,  and  sometimes  with  profound 
thought,  metaphysic  and  economic  both.  The  works 
of  Charles  Fourier — a  strange,  fantastic,  visionary 
man,  no  doubt,  but  gifted  also  with  amazing  insight 
of  the  truths  of  social  science  —  shed  some  light  in 
these  dark  places  of  speculation.  Mr.  Riple}^,  a  born 
Democrat,  in  the  high  sense  of  that  abused  word,  and 
one  of  the  best  cultured  and  most  enlightened  men 
in  America,  made  an  attempt  at  Brook-farm,  in  "West 
Roxbury,  so  to  organize  society  that  the  results  of 
labor  should  remain  in  the  workman's  hand,  and  not 
slip  thence  to  the  trader's  till ;  that  there  should  be 
"  no  exploitation  of  man  by  man,"  but  Toil  and 
Thought,  hard  work  and  high  culture,  should  be 
united  in  the  same  person. 


EXPERIEXCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  55 

The  natural  Rights  of  Woman  began  to  be  inquired 
into,  and  publicly  discussed ;  while  in  private,  great 
pains  were  taken  in  the  chief  towns  of  New  England, 
to  furnish  a  thorough  and  comprehensive  education 
to  such  young  maidens  as  were  born  with  two  talents, 
mind  and  money. 

Of  course,  a  strong  reaction  folloAved.  At  the 
Cambridge  Divinity  School,  Prof  Henry  Ware,  Jr., 
told  the  young  men,  if  there  appeared  to  them  any 
contradiction  between  the  Reason  of  Man  and  the 
Letter  of  the  Bible,  they  ^}  must  follow  the  written 
word,"  "  for  you  can  never  be  so  certain  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  what  takes  place  in  your  own  mind,  as  of 
what  is  written  in  the  Bible."  In  an  ordination  ser- 
mon, he  told  the  yoxmg  minister  not  to  preach  himself, 
but  Christ ;  and  not  to  appeal  to  Human  Nature  for 
proof  of  doctrines,  but  to  the  Authority  of  Revelation. 
Other  Unitarian  ministers  declared,  "  There  are  limits 
to  free  inquiry  ;  "  and  preached,  "  Reason  must  be 
put  down,  or  she  Avill  soon  ask  terrible  questions  ;  " 
protested  against  the  union  of  Philosophy  and  Re- 
ligion, and  assumed  to  "  prohibit  the  banns  "  of  mar- 
riage between  the  two.  Mr.  Norton  —  then  a  great 
name  at  Cambridge,  a  scholar  of  rare  but  contracted 
merit,  a  careful  and  exact  writer,  born  for  contro- 
versy, really  learned  and  able  in  his  special  depart- 
ment, the  Interpretations  of  the  New  Testament  — 
opened  his  mouth  and  spoke  :  the  mass  of  men  must 


56  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

accept  the  doctrines  of  religion  solely  on  the  author- 
ity of  the  learned,  as  they  do  the  doctrines  of  mathe- 
matical astronomy  ;  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  —  he  made 
merry  at  those  of  the  Old  Testament,  —  are  the  only 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  ;  in  the  popu- 
lar religion  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  there  was  no 
conception  of  God ;  the  new  philosophic  attempts  to 
explain  the  facts  of  religious  consciousness,  Avore 
"  the  Latest  Form  of  Infidelity ;  "  the  great  j^liilo- 
sophical  and  theological  thinkers  of  Germany,  were 
"  all  Atheists  ;  "  "  Schleiermacher  was  an  Atheist,"  as 
was  also  Spinoza,  his  master,  before  him ;  and  Cousin, 
who  was  only  ''  that  Frenchman,"  was  no  better ;  the 
study  of  philosophy,  and  the  neglect  of  "  biblical  crit- 
icism," were  leading  mankind  to  ruin,  —  everywhere 
was  instability  and  insecurity  ! 

Of  course,  this  reaction  was  supported  by  the  Min- 
isters in  the  great  Churches  of  Commerce,  and  by  the 
old  literary  periodicals,  — ■  which  never  knew  a  star 
was  risen  till  men  wondered  at  it  in  the  zenith ;  the 
Unitarian  Journals  gradually  went  over  to  the  oppo- 
nents of  freedom  and  progress,  with  lofty  scorn 
rejecting  their  former  principles,  and  repeating  the 
conduct  they  had  once  complained  of;  Cambridge  and 
Princeton  seemed  to  be  interchanging  cards.  From 
such  hands,  Cousin  and  Emerson  could  not  receive 
needed  criticism,  but  only  vulgar  abuse.  Dr,  Chan- 
ning  could  "  not  draw  a  long  breath  in  Boston,"  where 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  57 

he  found  the  successors  of  Paul  trembling  before  the 
successors  of  Felix.  Even  Trinitarian  Moses  Stuart 
seemed  scarcely  safe  in  his  hard-bottomed  Hopkinsian 
chair,  at  Andover.  The  Trinitarian  ministers  and 
city  schoolmasters  galled  Horace  Mann  with  contin- 
ual assaults  on  his  measures  for  educating  the  people. 
Unitarian  ministers  struck  hands  with  wealthy  liquor- 
dealers  to  drive  Mr.  Pierpont  from  his  pulpit,  where 
he  valiantly  preached  '*  Temperance,  Righteousness, 
and  Judgment  to  come,"  appealing  to  "  a  day  after 
to-day."  Prominent  Anti-Slavery  men  were  dropi3ed 
out  of  all  wealthy  society  in  Boston,  their  former 
friends  not  knowing  them  in  the  street ;  Mr.  Garrison 
was  mobbed  by  men  in  handsome  coats,  and  found 
defence  from  their  fury  only  in  a  jail ;  an  assembly  of 
women,  consulting  for  the  liberation  of  their  darker 
sisters,  was  driven  with  hootings  into  the  street.  The 
Attorney  General  of  Massachusetts  brought  an  indict- 
ment for  blasphemy  against  a  country  minister,  one 
of  the  most  learned  biblical  scholars  in  America,  for 
publicly  proving  that  none  of  the  "  Messianic  prophe- 
cies "  of  the  Old  Testament  was  ever  fulfilled  by  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  who  accordingly  was  not  the  expected 
Christ  of  the  Jews.  Abner  Kneeland,  editor  of  a  news- 
paper, in  which  he  boasted  of  the  name  "  Infidel," 
was  clapped  in  jail  for  writing  against  the  ecclesias- 
tical notion  of  God,  —  the  last  man  ever  punished  for 
blasphemy  in  the  State.     At  the  beck  of  a  Virginian 


58  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

slave-holder,  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  sug- 
gested to  the  Legislature  the  expediency  of  abridging 
the  old  New  England  liberty  of  speech  ! 

The  movement  party  established  a  new  Quarterly, 
the  Dial,  wherein  their  wisdom  and  their  folly  rode 
together  on  the  same  saddle,  to  the  amazement  of 
lookers-on.  The  short-lived  journal  had  a  narrow 
circulation,  but  its  most  significant  papers  were 
scattered  wide  by  newspapers  which  copied  them. 
A  Quarterly  Review  was  also  established  by  Mr. 
Brownson,  then  a  Unitarian  Minister  and  "  sceptical 
democrat "  of  the  most  extravagant  class,  but  now  a 
Catholic,  a  powerful  advocate  of  material  and  spir- 
itual despotism,  and  perhaps  the  ablest  writer  in 
America  against  the  Rights  of  Man  and  the  Welfare 
of  his  race.  In  this  he  diffused  important  philoso- 
phic ideas,  displayed  and  disciplined  his  own  extraor- 
dinary talents  for  philosophic  thought  and  popular 
writing,  and  directed  them  towards  Democracy, 
Transcendentalism,  "  New  Views,"  and  the  "  Pro- 
gress of  the  Species." 

I  count  it  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  I  was  a 
young  man  when  these  things  were  taking  place, 
when  great  questions  were  discussed,  and  the  public 
had  not  yet  taken  sides. 

After  I  became  a  minister  I  laid  out  an  extensive 
plan  of  study,  a  continuation  of  previous  work.     I 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A   MINISTER.  59 

intended  to  write  a  "  History  of  the  Progressive 
Development  of  Religion  among  the  leading  Races 
of  Mankind,"  and  attended  at  once  to  certain  j)re- 
liminaries.  I  studied  the  Bible  more  carefully  and 
comprehensively  than  before,  both  the  Criticism  and 
Interpretation ;  and,  in  six  or  seven  years,  prej^ared 
an  "  Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  Testament,"  translated  from  the  German  of  Dr. 
De  Wette,  the  ablest  writer  in  the  world  on  that 
theme  ;  the  book  as  published  was  partly  his  and 
partly  mine.  This  work  led  me  to  a  careful  study  of 
the  Christian  Fathers  of  the  first  five  centuries,  and 
of  most  of  the  great  works  written  about  the  Bible 
and  Christianity.  I  intended  to  prepare  a  similar 
work  on  the  New  Testament,  and  the  Apocrypha  of 
both  Old  and  New.  I  studied  the  philosophers, 
theologians  and  biblical  critics  of  Germany,  the  only 
land  where  theology  was  then  studied  as  a  science, 
and  developed  with  scientific  freedom.  I  was  much 
helped  by  the  large  learning  and  nice  analysis  of  these 
great  thinkers,  who  have  done  as  much  for  the  history 
of  the  Christian  movement  as  Niebuhr  for  that  of  the 
Roman  State.  But  as  I  studied  the  profound  works  of 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  the  regressive  and  the  pro- 
gressive men,  and  got  instruction  from  all,  I  did  not 
feel  inclined  to  accept  any  one  as  my  master,  think- 
ing it  lawful  to  ride  on  their  horses  without  being 
myself  either  saddled  or  bridled. 


60  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

The  critical  study  of  the  Bible  only  enhanced  my 
reverence  for  the  great  and  good  things  I  found  in 
the  Old  Testament  and  Xew.  They  "were  not  the 
less  valuable  because  they  were  not  the  work  of 
"  miraculous  and  infallible  inspiration,"  and  because 
I  found  them  mixed  with  some  of  the  worst  doctrines 
ever  taught  by  men  ;  it  was  no  strange  thing  to  find 
pearls  surrounded  by  sand,  and  roses  beset  with 
thorns.  I  liked  the  Bible  better  Avhen  I  could  con- 
sciously take  its  contradictory  books  each  for  what 
it  is,  and  felt  nothing  commanding  me  to  accept 
it  for  what  it  is  not ;  and  could  freely  use  it  as  a 
help,  not  slavishly  serve  it  as  a  master,  or  worship 
it  as  an  idol.  I  took  no  doctrine  for  true,  simply 
because  it  was  in  the  Bible ;  what  therein  seemed 
false  or  wrong,  I  rejected  as  freely  as  if  I  had  found 
it  in  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  Buddhists  or  Mormons. 

I  had  not  preached  long  before  I  found,  as  never 
before,  that  practically,  the  ecclesiastical  worshij)  of 
the  Bible  hindered  the  religious  welfare  and  progress 
of  the  Christians  more  than  any  other  cause. 

With  Doctors,  the  Traditionary  Drug  was  once  a 
Fetish,  which  they  reverenced  and  administered 
without  much  inquiring  whether  it  would  kill  or  cure. 
But  now,  fortunately,  they  are  divided  into  so  many 
sects,  each  terribly  criticising  the  other,  the  spirit  of 
philosophic  scepticism  and  inquiry  by  experiment  has 
so  entered  the  profession,  that  many  have  broken  with 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  61 

that  Hutliority,  and  ask  freely,  ''  How  can  the  sick 
man  recover?"  The  worship  of  the  Traditionary 
Drug  is  getting  ended. 

With  Lawyers,  the  law  of  the  land,  custom,  or  pro- 
mulgated statute,  is  also  a  Fetish.  They  do  not  ask, 
''  Is  the  statute  right  ? —  will  its  application  promote 
Justice  ?  "  which  is  the  common  interest  of  all  men, 
but  only,  "  Is  it  Law  ?  "  To  this  the  judge  and  advo- 
cate must  prostitute  their  conscience ;  —  hence  the 
personal  ruin  which  so  often  is  mistaken  for  jDcrsonal 
success. 

With  Protestant  ministers,  the  Bible  is  a  Fetish ;  it 
is  so  with  Catholic  priests,  likewise,  only  to  them  the 
Roman  Church  is  the  Master-Fetish,  the  "  Big  Thun- 
der," while  the  Bible  is  but  an  inferior  and  subser- 
vient idol.  For  ultimate  authority,  the  minister  does 
not  appeal  to  God,  manifesting  himself  in  the  world 
of  matter  and  the  world  of  man,  but  only  to  the  Bible  ; 
to  that  he  prostitutes  his  mind  and  conscience,  heart 
and  soul ;  on  the  authority  of  an  anonymous  Hebrew 
book,  he  will  justify  the  slaughter  of  innocent  men, 
women  and  children,  by  the  thousand  ;  and,  on  that  of 
an  anonymous  Greek  book,  he  will  believe,  or  at  least 
command  others  to  believe,  that  man  is  born  totally 
depraved,  and  God  will  perpetually  slaughter  men  in 
Hell  by  the  million,  though  they  had  committed  no 
fault,  except  that  of  not  believing  an  absurd  doctrine 
they  had  never  heard  of.  Ministers  take  the  Bible  in 
6 


G2  TIIEODOUK    PAUKEU'S 

the  luiu})  as  divine  ;  all  between  the  lids  of  the  book 
is  C(iually  the  ''  Word  of  God/'  infallible  and  miracu- 
lous ;  he  that  believeth  it  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that 
believeth  not  shall  be  damned ;  no  amount  of  Piety 
and  Morality  can  make  up  for  not  believing  this.  No 
Doctor  is  ever  so  subordinate  to  his  Drug,  no  Lawyer 
lies  so  prone  before  Statute  and  Custom,  as  the  mass 
of  Ministers  before  the  Bible,  the  great  Fetish  of 
Protestant  Christendom.  The  Ephesians  did  not  so 
worship  their  great  goddess  Diana  and  the  meteoric 
stone  which  fell  down  from  Jupiter.  "  We  can  believe 
anything,"  say  they,  "  which  has  a  '  Thus  saith  the 
Lord '  before  or  after  it."  The  Bible  is  not  only 
Master  of  the  Soul,  it  is  also  a  talisman  to  keep  men 
from  harm ;  bodily  contact  with  it,  through  hand  or 
eye,  is  a  part  of  Religion  ;  —  so  it  lies  in  railroad 
stations,  in  the  parlors  and  sleeping  chambers  of 
taverns,  and  the  cabins  of  ships,  only  to  be  seen  and 
touched,  not  read.  The  pious  mother  puts  it  in  the 
trunk  of  her  prodigal  son,  about  to  travel,  and  Avhile 
she  knows  ho  is  Avasting  her  substance  upon  harlots 
and  in  riotous  living,  she  contents  herself  with  the 
thought  that  "  he  has  got  his  Bible  with  him,  and 
])romised  to  read  a  chapter  every  day  ! "  So  the 
Catholic  mother  uses  an  image  of  the  ''  Virgin  ^lother 
of  God,"  and  the  llocky  Mountain  savage  a  bundle  of 
grass  :  It  is  a  Fetish. 

But  with    this  general  woi'shij)   of  tin'  Bihh'.   there 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  63 

is  yet  a  cunning  nse  of  it ;  as  the  lawyers  twist  a 
statute  to  wring  out  a  meaning  they  know  it  does 
not  contain,  but  themselves  put  in,  or  warp  a  decision 
till  it  fits  their  purpose,  so,  with  eqiial  sophistry,  and 
perhaps  self-deceit,  do  the  ministers  tAvist  the  Bible 
to  support  their  special  doctrine  :  no  book  has  been 
explained  with  such  sophistry.  Thus,  some  make  the 
Apostle  Paul  a  Unitarian,  and  find  neither  Divinity 
nor  the  Preexistence  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  the  fourth 
Gospel ;  while  others  discover  the  full-blown  Trinity 
in  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  first  book 
in  the  Bible  ;  nay,  yet  others  can  find  no  Devil,  no 
Wrathful  God,  and  no  Eternal  Damnation,  even  in  the 
New  Testament.  But  all  these  ministers  agree  that 
the  Bible  is  the  "  Word  of  God,"  "  His  only  Word," 
miraculous  and  infallible,  and  that  belief  in  it  is  indis- 
pensable to  Christianity,  and  continually  preach  this 
to  the  people. 

I  had  not  been  long  a  minister,  before  I  found  this 
worship  of  the  Bible  as  a  Fetish,  hindering  me 'at 
each  progressive  step.  If  I  wished  to  teach  the 
nobleness  of  man,  the  Old  Testament  and  New  were 
there  with  dreadful  condemnations  of  Human  Nature  ; 
did  I  speak  of  God's  Love  for  all  men,  the  Bible  was 
full  of  ghastly  things  — •  Chosen  People,  Hell,  Devil, 
Damnation — to  prove  that  he  loved  only  a  few,  and 
them  not  overmuch ;  did  I  encourage  free  individu- 
ality of  soul,  such  as  the  great  Bible-men  themselves 


G4  THEODORE    PARKER's 

liud,  asking  all  to  be  Christians  as  Jesus  "was  a  Clirist, 
there  were  texts  of  hondage,  coinnianding  a  belief  in 
this  or  that  absurdity.  There  Avas  no  virtue,  but  the 
Scriptures  could  furnish  an  argument  against  it.  I 
could  not  deny  tlie  existence  of  ghosts  and  witches, 
devils  and  demons,  haunting  the  earth,  but  revelation 
coidd  be  quoted  against  me.  Nay,  if  I  declared  the 
Constancy  of  Nature's  Laws,  and  sought  therein 
great  argument  for  the  Constancy  of  CJod,  all  the 
miracles  came  and  held  their  mythologic  finger  up. 
Even  Slavery  was  "  of  God,"  for  the  "  divine  stat- 
utes ''  in  the  Old  Testament  admitted  the  Principle 
that  man  might  own  a  man  as  well  as  a  garden  or  an 
ox,  and  provided  for  the  measure.  Moses  and  tlie 
Prophets  were  on  its  side,  and  neither  Paul  of  Tarsus 
nor  Jesus  of  Nazareth  uttered  a  direct  Avord  against 
it.  The  best  thing  in  the  Bible  is  the  free  Genius  for 
Religion,  which  is  itself  inspiration,  and  not  only 
learns  particular  Truths  througli  its  direct  normal 
intercourse  with  God,  but  creates  new  men  in  its 
own  likeness,  to  lead  every  Israel  out  of  his'  Egypt, 
and  conduct  all  men  to  the  Land  of  Promise :  whoso 
worships  the  Bible,  loses  this. 

I  set  myself  seriously  to  consider  how  I  could  best 
oppose  this  monstrous  evil :  it  required  great  caution. 
I  feared  lest  I  should  weaken  men's  natural  trust  in 
God,  and  their  respect  for  true  Religion,  by  rudely 
showing  them  that  they  worshii>ptMl  an  idol,  and  were 


EXPKRIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  05 

misled  into  gross  superstition.  This  fear  did  not 
come  from  my  nature,  but  from  ecclesiastical  tradi- 
tion and  the  vice  of  a  New  England  theologic  culture. 
It  has  been  the  maxim  of  almost  every  sect  in  Christen- 
dom that  the  mass  of  men,  in  religious  matters,  must 
be  ruled  with  authority,  that  is,  by  outward  force  ;  — 
this  principle  belongs  to  tlie  Idea  of  a  Supernatural 
Hevelation  ;  the  people  cannot  determine  for  them- 
selves what  is  true,  moral,  religious  ;  their  ojjinions 
must  be  made  for  them  by  supernatural  authority, 
not  b}'  them  through  the  normal  use  of  their  higher 
faculties  !  Hence  the  Catholic  j)riest  appeals  to  the 
supernatural  Church  to  prove  the  infallibility  of  the 
Pope,  the  actual  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Jesus  in  the  sacramental  bread  and  wine  ;  hence  the 
Protestant  appeals  to  the  supernatural  Bible,  to  j^rove 
that  Jesus  was  born  with  no  human  father,  the  total 
depravity  of  all  men,  the  wrath  of  God,  the  existence 
of  a  Devil,  and  the  eternal  torments  of  HelL  Besides, 
the  man  of  superior  education  is  commonly  separated 
from  sympathizing  with  the  people,  and  that  by  the 
very  culture  they  have  paid  for  with  their  toil,  and 
Avhich  ought  to  unite  the  two ;  he  has  little  confidence 
in  their  instinct  or  reflection. 

I  had  some  of  these  unnatural  doubts  and  fears  ; 
but  my  chief  anxiety  came  less  from  disti-ust  of  man- 
kind, than  from  diffidence  in  my  OAvn  power  to  tell  the 
truth  so  clear   and  well  that  I   should   do  no  harm. 


GG  TiiEonoRE  Parker's 

However,  when  I  saw  the  evil  Avhich  came  from  this 
superstition,  I  could  not  be  silent.  In  conversation 
and  preaching,  I  explained  little  details — this  was 
poetry  in  the  Bible,  and  not  matter  of  fact ;  that  was 
only  the  dress  of  the  doctrine,  not  truth  itself;  the 
authors  of  Scripture  were  mistaken  here  and  there  ; 
they  believed  in  a  Devil,  which  was  a  popular  fancy 
of  their  times  ;  a  particular  propliecy  has  never  been 
fulfilled. 

But  the  whole  matter  nuist  l)e  treated  more  plii- 
losophically,  and  set  on  its  true  foundation.  So, 
designing  to  save  men's  reverence  for  the  grand 
truths  of  the  Bible,  while  I  should  wean  them  away 
from  worship})ing  it,  I  soon  laboriously  wrote  two 
sermons  on  the  contradictions  in  the  Scripture, — 
treating  of  Historic  Contradictions,  where  one  part 
is  at  variance  with  another,  or  with  actual  facts, 
authenticated  by  other  Avitnesses  ;  of  Scientific  Con- 
tradictions, passages  at  open  variance  with  the  facts 
of  the  material  universe ;  and  of  Moral  and  Reli- 
gious Contradictions,  passages  which  Avere  hostile 
to  the  highest  intuitions  and  reflections  of  Human 
Nature.  I  made  the  discourses  as  perfect  as  I  then 
could  at  that  early  stage  of  my  life  :  very  imperfect 
and  incomplete  I  should,  doubtless,  find  them  now. 
I  then  inquired  about  the  expediency  of  i)reaching 
them  immediately.  I  had  not  yet  enough  practical 
experience  of  men  to  authorize  me  to  depart  from 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  G7 

the  ecclesiastical  distrust  of  the  people  ;  I  consulted 
older  and  enlightened  ministers.  They  all  said,  '*  No  ! 
Preach  no  such  thing!  You  will  only  do  harm!'' 
One  of  the  most  learned  and  liberal  ministers  of  New 
England  advised  me  never  to  oppose  the  popular 
religion !  *'  But,  if  it  be  wrong  to  hinder  the  re- 
ligious welfare  of  the  people — ^what  then?"  Why, 
let  it  alone  ;  all  the  old  philosophers  did  so  ;  Socrates 
sacrificed  a  cock  to  ^sculapius  !  He  that  spits  in 
the  wind  spits  in  his  own  face  ;  you  will  ruin  your- 
self, and  do  nobody  any  good  ! 

Silenced,  but  not  convinced,  I  kept  my  unpreached 
sermons,  read  books  on  kindred  matters,  and  sought 
to  make  my  work  more  complete  as  a  whole,  and 
more  perfect  in  all  its  parts.  At  length,  I  consulted 
a  very  wise  and  thoughtful  layman,  old,  with  large 
social  experience,  and  much  esteemed  for  sound 
sense,  one  who  knew  the  difficulties  of  the  case, 
and  would  not  let  his  young  children  read  the  Old 
Testament,  lest  it  should  injure  their  religious  char- 
acter. I  told  him  my  conviction  and  my  doubts, 
asking  his  advice.  He  also  thought  silence  wiser 
than  speech,  yet  said  there  were  many  thoughtful 
men  who  felt  troubled  by  the  offensive  things  in 
the  Bible,  and  would  be  grateful  to  any  one  who 
could  show  that  Religion  was  independent  thereof 
But,  he  added,  "  If  you  try  it,  you  will  be  mis- 
understood.     Take    the  Society  at  ,  perhaps 


68  TiiEODOEE  Parker's 

one  of  the  most  intelligent  in  the  city ;  you  will 
preach  your  sermons,  a  few  will  understand  and 
thank  you.  But  the  great  vulgar,  Avho  hear  im- 
perfectly and  remember  imperfectly,  and  at  the 
best  understand  but  little,  they  will  say,  '  He  finds 
faults  in  the  Bible  !  What  does  it  all  mean ;  what 
have  we  got  left?'  And  the  little  vulgar,  who 
hear  and  remember  still  more  imperfectly,  and  un- 
derstand even  less,  they  will  exclaim,  ^  Why,  the 
man  is  an  Infidel !  He  tells  us  there  are  faults  in  the 
Bible.  He  is  pulling  down  religion  ! '  Then  it  will 
get  into  the  newspapers,  and  all  the  ministers  in 
the  land  will  be  down  upon  you  !  No  good  will  be 
done,  but  much  harm.  You  had  better  let  it  all 
alone!" 

I  kept  my  sermons  more  than  a  year,  doubting 
whether  the  little  congregation  would  be  able  to 
choose  between  Truth  and  Error  when  both  were 
set  before  them,  and  fearing  lest  I  should  weaken 
their  faith  in  pure  religion,  when  I  showed  it  was 
not  responsible  for  the  contradictions  in  the  Hebrew 
and  Greek  Scriptures !  But  at  length  I  could 
wait  no  longer ;  and  to  ease  my  own  conscience,  I 
preached  the  two  sermons,  yet  not  venturing  to 
look  the  audience  in  the  face  and  see  the  innno- 
diate  result.  In  the  course  of  the  week,  men  and 
women  of  the  commonest  education,  but  of  earnest 
character  and  profound  religious  feeling,  took  pains 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  69 

to  tell  me  of  the  great  comfort  I  liad  given  tliem, 
by  showing,  what  they  had  long  felt,  that  the  Bible 
is  one  thing  and  Religion  another ;  that  the  two  had 
no  necessary  connection ;  that  the  faults  of  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  New  need  not  hinder  any  man 
from  religious  development ;  and  that  he  never 
need  try  to  believe  a  statement  in  the  Bible  which 
was  at  variance  with  his  reason  and  his  conscience. 
They  thanked  me  for  the  attempt  to  apply  Common 
Sense  to  Religion  and  the  Bible.  The  most  thought- 
ful and  religious  seemed  the  most  instructed.  I 
could  not  learn  that  any  one  felt  less  reverence  for 
God,  or  less  love  for  Piety  and  Morality.  It  was 
plain  I  had  removed  a  stone  of  stumbling  from  the 
public  path.  The  scales  of  ecclesiastical  tradition 
fell  from  my  eyes ;  by  this  crucial  experiment,  this 
guide-board  instance,  I  learned  that  the  mass  of 
men  need  not  be  led  blindfold  by  clerical  authority, 
but  had  competent  power  of  self-direction,  and  while 
they  needed  the  scholar  as  their  help,  had  no  need 
of  a  self-appointed  master.  It  was  clear  that  a 
teacher  of  Religion  and  Theology  should  tell  the 
world  all  he  knew  thereunto  appertaining,  as  all 
teachers  of  IMathematics  or  of  Chemistry  are  ex- 
pected to  do  in  their  profession. 

I  had  once  felt  very  happy,  when  I  could  legitimate 
these  three  great  primal  instinctive  intuitions,  of  the 
Divine,   the    Just,   and   the    Immortal ;    I   now   felt 


70  THEODORE  Parker's 

equally  joyous  at.  fiudiui;-  \  niiglit  safc^ly  appeal  to 
the  same  instincts  in  the  inass  of  Xew  England  men, 
and  build  Ixeligion  on  that  imperishahle  foundation. 

I  continued  my  humble  studies,  philosophical  and 
theological;  and  fast  as  I  found  a  new  Truth,  I 
preached  it  to  gladden  other  hearts  in  my  own  parish, 
and  elsewhere,  when  I  spoke  in  the  pulpits  of  my 
friends.  The  neighboring  ministers  became  familiar 
with  my  opinions  and  my  practice,  but  seldom  uttered 
a  reproach.  At  length,  on  the  19th  of  May,  1841,  at 
the  ordination  of  Mr.  Shackford,  a  thoughtful  and 
promising  young  man,  at  South  Boston,  I  preached  a 
"  Discourse  of  the  Transient  and  Permanent  in  Chris- 
tianity." The  Trinitarian  ministers  who  were  pre- 
sent joined  in  a  public  protest ;  a  great  outcry  was 
raised  against  the  sermon  and  its  author.  Theologi- 
cal and  commercial  newspapers  rung  with  animad- 
versions against  its  wickedness.  "  Unbeliever,"  "  In- 
fidel," "  Atheist,"  were  the  titles  bestowed  on  mo  by 
my  brothers  in  the  Christian  ministry ;  a  venerable 
minister,  who  heard  the  report  in  an  adjoining  county, 
printed  his  letter  in  one  of  the  most  widely  circulated 
journals  of  New  England,  calling  on  the  Attorney 
General  to  prosecute,  the  Grand  Jury  to  indict,  and 
the  Judge  to  sentence  me  to  three  years'  confinement 
in  the  State  Prison,  for  blasphemy  ! 

I  ])rinted  the  Sermon;  but  no  bookseller  in  l^oston 
would    i)ut    his    naiiKi    to   tlie   title-page,  —  Unitarian 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  71 

ministers  liad  been  busy  with  their  advice.  The 
Swedenborgian  printers  volunteered  the  protection 
of  their  name  ;  the  little  j^amphlet  was  thus  published, 
sold,  and  vehemently  denounced.  Most  of  my  clerical 
friends  fell  off;  some  Avould  not  speak  to  me  in  the 
street,  and  refused  to  take  me  by  the  hand ;  in  their 
public  meetings  they  left  the  sofas  or  benches  when 
I  sat  down,  and  withdrew  from  me  as  Jews  from  con- 
tact with  a  leper.  In  a  few  months  most  of  my  for- 
mer ministerial  coadjutors  forsook  me,  and  there 
were  only  six  who  would  alloAv  me  to  enter  their 
pulpits.  But  yet  one  Unitarian  minister,  Rev.  John 
L.  Russell,  though  a  stranger  till  then,  presently  after 
came  and  offered  me  his  help  in  my  time  of  need ! 
The  controlling  men  of  the  denomination  determined, 
"  This  young  man  must  be  silenced  !"  The  Unitarian 
periodicals  were  shut  against  me  and  my  friends  — 
the  public  must  not  read  what  I  wrote.  Attempts 
were  secretly  made  to  alienate  my  little  congregation, 
and  expel  me  from  my  obscure  station  at  West  Rox- 
bury.  But  I  had  not  gone  to  war  without  counting 
the  cost.  I  well  knew  beforehand  what  awaited  me, 
and  had  determined  to  fight  the  battle  through,  and 
never  thought  of  yielding  or  being  silenced.  I  told 
my  opponents  the  only  man  who  could  "  put  me 
down"  was  myself,  and  I  trusted  I  should  do  nothing 
to  bring  about  that  result.  If  thrust  out  of  my  own 
pulpit,  I  made  up  my  mind  to   lecture  from  city  to 


72  TiiEoDOKE  Parker's 

city,  from  town  to  town,  from  village  to  village,  nay, 
if  need  were,  from  house  to  house,  well  assured  that 
I  should  not  thus  go  over  the  hamlets  of  New  Eng- 
land till  something  was  come.  But  the  little  Society 
came  generously  to  my  support  and  defence,  giving 
me  the  heartiest  sympathy,  and  offered  me  all  the 
indulgence  in  their  power.  Some  ministers  and 
generous-minded  laymen  stood  up  on  my  side,  and 
preached  or  wrote  in  defence  of  free  thought  and 
free  speech,  even  in  the  pulpit.  Friendly  persons, 
both  men  and  women,  wrote  me  letters  to  cheer  and 
encourage,  also  to  warn  —  this  against  fear,  that 
against  excess  and  violence ;  some  of  them  never 
gave  me  their  names,  and  I  have  only  this  late  oppor- 
tunity to  thank  them  for  their  anonymous  kindness. 
Of  course,  scurrilous  and  abusive  letters  did  not  fail 
to  appear. 

Five  or  six  men  in  Boston  thought  this  treatment 
was  not  quite  fair ;  they  wished  to  judge  neither  a 
man  nor  his  doctrines  unheard,  but  to  know  at 
length  what  I  had  to  say ;  so  they  asked  me  to 
deliver  a  course  of  five  lectures  in  your  city,  on 
religious  matters.  I  consented,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1841  delivered  five  lectures  on  "  ]\Iatters  i)er- 
taining  to  Religion  ; "  they  were  reported  in  some 
of  the  newspapers,  most  ably  and  fully  in  the  Nno 
York  Tribune,  not  then  the  famous  and  powerful 
sheet  it  has  since  become.     I  delivered  the  lectures 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  73 

several  times  that  winter  in  the  Ne^v  England 
towns,  and  published  them  in  a  volume  the  next 
spring.  I  thought  no  bookseller  would  put  his 
name  to  the  title-page ;  but  when  the  work  was 
ready  for  the  public  eye,  my  friend,  the  late  Mr. 
James  Brown,  perhaps  the  most  eminent  man  in 
the  American  book  trade,  volunteered  to  take  charge 
of  it,  and  the  book  appeared  with  the  advantage  of 
issuing  from  one  of  the  most  respectable  publishing- 
houses  in  the  United  States.  Years  afterwards  he 
told  me  that  two  '•'  rich  and  highly  respectable 
gentlemen  of  Boston"  begged  him  to  have  nothing 
to  do  with  it ;  "  we  wish,"  said  they,  ^'  to  render  it 
impossible  for  him  to  publish  his  work ! "  But  the 
bookseller  wanted  fair  play. 

The  next  autumn  I  delivered  in  Boston  six  "  Ser- 
mons for  the  Times,"  treating  of  Theology,  of  Reli- 
gion, and  of  its  application  to  Life.  These  also  were 
repeated  in  several  other  places. 

But,  weary  with  anxiety  and  excess  of  work,  both 
public  and  private,  my  health  began  to  be  seriously 
impaired,  and  in  September,  1843,  I  fled  ofi"  to 
Europe,  to  spend  a  year  in  recovery,  observation, 
and  thought.  I  had  there  an  opportunity  to  study 
nations  I  had  previously  known  only  by  their 
literature,  and  by  other  men's  words ;  to  see  the 
effect  which  despotic,  monarchic,  and  aristocratic 
institutions  have  on  multitudes  of  men,  who,  from 
7 


74  THEODORE   PARKER's 

generation  to  generation,  had  lived  under  them ; 
to  study  the  eiFect  of  those  forms  of  religion  Avhich 
are  enforced  by  the  inquisitor  or  the  constable;  and, 
in  many  forms,  to  see  the  dijfference  between  freedom 
and  bondage.  In  their  architecture,  painting,  and 
sculpture,  the  European  cities  afforded  me  a  new 
Avorld  of  Art,  while  the  heterogeneous  crowds  which 
throng  the  streets  of  those  vast  ancient  capitals,  so 
rich  in  their  historic  monuments,  presented  human 
life  in  forms  I  had  not  known  before.  It  is  only 
in  the  low  parts  of  London,  Paris,  and  Naples,  that 
an  American  learns  what  the  Ancients  meant  by  the 
"  People,"  the  "  Populace,"  and  sees  what  Barbar- 
ism may  exist  in  the  midst  of  wealth,  culture, 
refinement,  and  manly  virtue.  There  I  could  learn 
Avhat  warning  and  what  guidance  the  Old  "World 
liad  to  offer  to  the  New.  Visiting  some  of  the  seats 
of  learning,  which,  in  Europe,  are  also  sometimes 
the  citadel  of  new  thought  and  homes  of  genius,  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with  eminent  men, 
and  comparing  their  schemes  for  improving  man- 
kind with  my  own.  Still  more,  I  had  an  entire 
year,  free  from  all  practical  duties,  for  revising  my 
own  philosophy  and  theology,  and  laying  out  plans 
for  future  work.  My  involuntary  year  of  rest  and 
inaction  turned  out,  perhaps,  the  most  profitable  in 
my  life,  up  to  that  time,  in  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge and  in  preparing  for  much  that  was  to  follow. 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  75 

Coming  home  the  next  September,  with  more  physi- 
cal strength  than  ever  before,  I  found  a  hearty  wel- 
come from  the  many  friends  who  crowded  the  little 
Meeting  House  to  welcome  my  return  —  as  before  to 
bid  me  God-speed  —  and  resumed  my  usual  labors, 
public  and  private.  In  my  absence,  my  theological 
foes  had  contented  themselves  with  declaring  that  my 
doctrines  had  taken  no  root  in  America,  and  my  per- 
sonal friends  were  turning  off  from  the  error  of  their 
ways ;  but  the  sound  of  my  voice  roused  my  oppo- 
nents to  new  activity,  and  ere  long  the  pulpits  and 
newspapers  rang  with  the  accustomed  warfare.  But 
even  in  Boston,  there  were  earnest  ministers  Avho 
lifted  up  their  voices  in  behalf  of  freedom  of  thought 
in  the  study,  and  free  speech  in  the  pulpit.  I  shall 
never  cease  to  be  grateful  to  Mr.  Pierpont,  Mr,  Sar- 
gent, and  James  Freeman  Clarke,  "  friends  in  need, 
and  friends  in  deed."  They  defended  the  Principle 
of  Religious  Freedom,  though  they  did  not  share  the 
opinions  it  led  me  to,  nor  always  approve  of  the 
manner  in  which  I  set  them  forth.  It  was  zeal  for  the 
True  and  the  Right,  not  special  personal  friendship 
for  me,  which  moved  them  to  this  manly  course.  In 
the  most  important  Orthodox  Quarterly  in  America, 
a  young  Trinitarian  minister.  Rev.  Mr.  Porter,  re- 
viewed my  Discourse  of  Religion,  not  doing  injustice 
to  author  or  work,  while  he  stoutly  opposed  both.  A 
few  other  friendly  words  were  also  spoken :  but  wliat 
were  those  among  so  many  ! 


76  THKODORF    PARKKR'S 

Under  these  circumstances  you  formed  your  So- 
ciety :  A  few  earnest  men  thought  the  great  Princi- 
ple of  Religious  Freedom  was  in  danger ;  for,  indeed, 
it  was  ecclesiastically  repudiated,  and  that  too  with 
scorn  and  hissing,  by  the  Unitarians — the  "  Liberal 
Christians  !  "  the  "  Party  of  Progress  " — ^not  less  than 
by  the  Orthodox.  Some  of  you  came  together, 
privately  at  first,  and  then  in  public,  to  look  matters 
in  the  face,  and  consider  what  ought  to  be  done. 
A  young  man  iDroposed  this  resolution  :  "Itesolved, 
That  the  Rev.  Theodore  Parker  shall  have  a  chance 
to  be  heard  in  Boston."  That  motion  prevailed,  and 
measures  were  soon  taken  to  make  the  resolution  an 
event.  But,  so  low  was  our  reputation,  that,  though 
payment  was  offered  in  advance,  of  all  the  unoccupied 
halls  in  Boston,  only  one  could  be  hired  for  our  purpose ; 
but  that  was  the  largest  and  most  central.  So,  one 
rainy  Sunday,  the  streets  full  of  snow,  on  the  16th  of 
February,  1845,  for  the  first  time,  I  stood  before  you  to 
preach  and  pray  :  Ave  were  strangers  then  !  I  spoke 
of  the  "  Indispensableness  of  True  Religion  for  Man's 
Welfare  in  his  Individual  and  his  Social  Life."  I  came 
to  build  up  Piety  and  Morality;  to  pull  down  only  what 
cumbered  the  ground.  I  was  tlien  in  my  thirty-fifth 
year,  and  had  some  knowledge  of  the  historical  devel- 
opment of  Religion  in  the  Christian  world.  I  knew 
that  I  came  to  a  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  I  had  enlisted 
for  the  whole,  should  life  hold  out  so  long.     I  knew 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  77 

well  what  we  had  to  expect  at  first ;  for  we  were  com- 
mitting the  sin  which  all  the  great  world-sects  have 
held  unpardonable — attempting  to  correct  the  Errors 
of  Theory  and  the  Vices  of  Practice  in  the  church. 
No  offence  could  ecclesiastically  be  greater ;  the  In- 
quisition was  built  to  punish  such ;  to  that  end  blazed 
the  fagots  at  Smithfield,  and  the  Cross  was  set  up  on 
Calvary.  Truth  has  her  cradle  near  Golgotha.  You 
knew  my  spirit  and  tendency  better  than  my  special 
opinions,  which  you  then  gave  a  '^  chance  to  be  heard 
in  Boston."  But  I  knew  that  I  had  thoroughly  broken 
with  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of  Christendom ;  its 
God  was  not  my  God,  nor  its  Scriptures  my  Word  of 
God,  nor  its  Christ  my  Saviour ;  for  I  preferred  the 
Jesus  of  historic  fact  to  the  Christ  of  theologic  fancy. 
Its  narrow,  partial  and  unnatural  Heaven  I  did  not 
wish  to  enter  on  the  terms  proposed,  nor  did  I  fear, 
since  earliest  youth,  its  mythic,  roomy  Hell,  wherein 
the  Triune  God,  with  his  pack  of  devils  to  aid,  tore 
the  Human  Race  in  pieces  for  ever  and  ever.  I  came 
to  preach  ''  another  Gospel,"  Sentiments,  Ideas,  Ac- 
tions, quite  unlike  what  belonged  to  the  theology  of 
the  Christian  church.  Though,  severely  in  earnest, 
I  came  to  educate  men  into  true  Religion  as  well  as 
I  could,  I  knew  I  should  be  accounted  the  worst 
of  men,  ranked  among  triflers,  mockers,  infidels,  and 
atheists.  But  I  did  not  know  all  the  public  had  to 
offer  me  of  good  or  ill ;  nay,  I  did  not  know  what  was 
7* 


78  THEODOi^E  Parker's 

latent  in  myself,  nor  foresee  all  the  doctrines  which 
then  were  hid  in  my  OAvn  first  principles,  what 
embryo  fruits  and  flowers  lay  sheathed  in  the  obvious 
bud.  But  at  the  beginning  I  warned  you  that  if  you 
came,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  you  would  soon  think 
very  much  as  I  did  on  the  great  matters  you  asked 
me  to  teach  —  because  I  had  drawn  my  doctrine 
from  the  same  Human  Nature  which  was  in  you,  and 
that  would  recognize  and  own  its  child. 


Let  me  arrange,  under  three  heads,  some  of  the 
most  important  doctrines  I  have  aimed  to  set  forth. 

I.  The  Infinite  Perfection  op  God. — This  doctrine 
is  the  corner-stone  of  all  my  theological  and  religious 
teaching — ^the  foundation,  perhaps,  of  all  that  is  pecu- 
liar in  my  system.  It  is  not  known  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment or  the  New ;  it  has  never  been  accepted  by  any 
sect  in  the  Christian  world ;  for,  though  it  be  equally 
claimed  by  all,  from  the  Catholic  to  the  Mormon,  none 
has  ever  consistently  developed  it,  even  in  theory, 
but  all  continually  limit  God  in  Power,  in  Wisdom, 
and  still  more  eminently  in  Justice  and  in  Love.  The 
idea  of  God's  Imperfection  has  been  carried  out  with 
dreadful  logic  in  the  "  Christian  Scheme."  Thus  it  is 
commonly  taught,  in  all  the  great  theologies,  that,  at 
the   Crucifixion   of  Jesus,  "  tlie    Creator  of  tlie   l^ni- 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  79 

verse  was  put  to  death,  and  liis  own  creatures  were 
his  executioners."  Besides,  in  the  ecclesiastic  con- 
ception of  Deity,  there  is  a  fourth  person  to  the  God- 
head, namely,  the  Devil,  an  outlying  member,  unac- 
knowledged, indeed,  the  complex  of  all  evil,  but  as 
much  a  part  of  Deity  as  either  Son  or  Holy  Ghost, 
and  far  more  powerful  than  all  the  rest,  who  seem 
but  jackals  to  provide  for  this  ''  roaring  lion,"  which 
devours  what  the  others  but  create,  die  for,  inspire, 
and  fill.  I  know  this  statement  is  ghastly, —  the  theo- 
logic  notion  it  sets  forth,  to  me  seems  far  more  so. 
While  the  Christians  accept  the  Bible  as  the  "  Word 
of  God,"  direct,  miraculous,  infallible,  containing  a 
complete  and  perfect  "  revelation"  of  His  Nature,  His 
Character  and  Conduct,  it  is  quite  impossible  for  them 
to  accept,  or  even  tolerate,  the  Infinite  Perfection  of 
God.  The  imperfect  and  cruel  character  attributed 
to  God,  rejoicing  in  his  Hell  and  its  legions  of  devils, 
is  the  fundamental  vice  of  the  ecclesiastical  theology, 
which  so  many  accept  as  their  "  Religion,"  and  name 
the  hideous  thing  '^  Christianity ! "  They  cannot 
escape  the  consequence  of  their  first  principle ; 
their  gate  must  turn  on  its  own  hinge. 

I  have  taught  that  God  contains  all  possible  and 
conceivable  perfection: — the  Perfection  of  Being,  Self- 
subsistence,  conditioned  only  by  itself;  the  Perfection 
of  Power,  All-mightiness  ;  of  Mind,  All-knowingness ; 
of  Conscience,  All-righteousness ;    of   Affection,  All- 


80  THEODORE    PARKER's 

lovingness;  and  the  Perfection  of  that  innermost 
Element,  wliicli  in  finite  man  is  Personality,  All-holi- 
ness, faithfulness  to  Himself. 

This  infinitely  perfect  God  is  immanent  in  the 
World  of  Matter,  and  in  the  World  of  Spirit,  the  two 
hemispheres  which  to  us  make  up  the  Universe  ;  each 
particle  thereof  is  inseparable  from  Him,  while  He 
yet  transcends  both,  is  limited  by  neither,  but  in 
Himself  is  complete  and  perfect. 

I  have  not  taught  that  the  special  qualities  I  find 
in  the  Deity  are  all  that  are  actually  there ;  higher 
and  more  must  doubtless  appear  to  beings  of  larger 
powers  than  man's.  My  definition  distinguishes  God 
from  all  other  beings ;  it  does  not  limit  him  to  the 
details  of  my  conception.  I  only  tell  what  I  know, 
not  what  others  may  know,  which  lies  beyond  my 
present  consciousness. 

He  is  a  Perfect  Creator,  making  all  from  a  perfect 
Motive,  for  a  perfect  Purpose,  of  perfect  Substance, 
and  as  a  perfect  Means ;  none  other  are  conceivable 
with  a  Perfect  God.  The  Motive  must  be  Love,  the 
Purpose  Welfare,  the  Means  the  Constitution  of  the 
Universe  itself,  as  a  whole  and  in  parts- — -for  each 
great  or  little  thing  coming  from  Him  must  be  per- 
fectly adapted  to  secure  the  Purpose  it  was  intended 
for,  and  achieve  the  End  it  was  meant  to  serve, 
and  represent  the  Causal  ^lotive  whicli  l»rought  it 
forth.       So    there    must   be    a    complete    solidarity 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  81 

between  God  and  the  two-fold  Universe  which  he 
creates.  The  Perfect  Creator  is  thus  also  a  Perfect 
Providence ;  indeed,  Creation  and  Providence  are 
not  objective  accidents  of  Deity,  nor  subjective 
caprices,  but  the  development  of  the  perfect  Motive 
to  its  perfect  Purpose,  Love  becoming  a  Universe 
of  perfect  Welfare. 

I  have  called  God  Father,  but  also  Mother,  not  by 
this  figure  implying  that  the  Divine  Being  has  the 
limitations  of  the  female  figure  —  as  some  ministers 
deceitfully  allege  of  late,  who  might  have  been  sup- 
posed to  know  better  than  thus  to  pervert  plain 
speech,  —  but  to  express  more  sensibly  the  quality  of 
tender  and  unselfish  Love,  which  mankind  associates 
more  with  Mother  than  aught  else  beside. 

11.  The  Adequacy  of  Man  for  all  his  Functions. 
— From  the  Infinite  Perfection  of  God  there  follows 
unavoidably  the  relative  perfection  of  all  that  He 
creates.  So,  the  nature  of  man,  tending  to  a  pro- 
gressive development  of  all  his  manifold  powers, 
must  be  the  best  possible  nature,  most  fit  for  the  per- 
fect accomplishment  of  the  perfect  Purpose,  and 
the  attainment  of  the  perfect  End,  which  God  designs 
for  the  race  and  the  individual.  It  is  not  difficult  in 
this  general  way  to  show  the  relative  perfection  of 
Human  Nature,  deducing  this  from  the  Infinite  Per- 
fection of  God ;  but  I  think  it  impossilile  to  prove  it 


82  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

by  the  inductive  process  of  reasoning  from  concrete 
facts  of  external  observation,  of  which  we  know  not 
yet  the  entire  sum,  nor  any  one,  perhaps,  completely. 
Yet  I  have  travelled  also  this  inductive  road,  as  far 
as  it  reaches,  and  tried  to  show  the  constitution  of 
man's  Body,  with  its  adaptation  to  the  surrounding 
world  of  matter,  and  the  constitution  of  his  Spirit, 
with  its  intellectual,  moral,  affectional,  and  religious 
powers,  and  its  Harmonious  Relation  with  the  world 
of  matter,  which  affords  them  a  playground,  a  school, 
and  a  workshop.  So  I  have  continually  taught  that 
man  has  in  himself  all  the  faculties  he  needs  to  accom- 
plish his  high  destination,  and  in  the  world  of  matter 
finds,  one  by  one,  all  the  material  helps  he  requires. 

We  all  see  the  Unity  of  Life  in  the  Individual ;  his 
gradual  growth  from  merely  sentient  and  passive 
babyhood,  up  to  thoughtful,  self-directing  manhood. 
I  have  tried  to  show  there  was  a  similar  Unity  of 
Life  in  the  Human  Race,  pointing  out  the  analogous 
progressive  development  of  Mankind,  from  the  state 
of  ignorance,  poverty,  and  utter  nakedness  of  soul 
and  sense,  the  necessary  primitive  conditions  of  the 
race,  up  to  the  present  Civilization  of  tlie  leading 
nations.  The  primitive  is  a  wild  man,  who  gradually 
grows  up  to  civilization.  To  me,  the  notorious  facts 
of  human  history,  the  condition  of  language,  art, 
industry,  and  the  foot-prints  of  man  left  all  over  the 
torrid  and  temperate  lands,  admit  of  no  other  inter- 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A   MINISTER.  83 

pretation.  Of  course  it  must  have  required  many  a 
thousand  years  for  Divine  Providence  to  bring  this 
child  from  his  mute,  naked,  ignorant  poverty,  up  to 
the  many-voiced,  many-colored  civilization  of  these 
times ;  and,  as  in  the  strata  of  mountain  and  plain, 
on  the  shores  of  the  sea,  and  under  "the  bottom  of 
the  monstrous  world,"  the  geologist  finds  proof  of 
time  immense,  wherein  this  Material  Cosmos  assumed 
its  present  form,  so  in  ruins  of  cities,  in  the  weapons 
of  iron,  bronze,  or  stone,  found  in  Scandinavian 
swamps,  on  the  sub-aquatic  enclosures  of  the  Swiss 
lakes,  in  the  remains  of  Egyptian  industry,  which 
the  holy  Nile,  "mother  of  blessings," — now  spiritual 
to  us,  as  once  material  to  those  whose  flesh  she  fed — 
has  covered  with  many  folds  of  earth  and  kept  for 
us ;  and  still  more  in  the  history  of  Art,  Science, 
War,  Industry,  and  the  Structure  of  Language  itself, 
a  slow-growing  plant,  do  I  find  proof  of  time  immense, 
wherein  Man,  this  S^Diritual  Cosmos,  has  been  assum- 
ing his  present  condition,  individual,  domestic,  social, 
and  national,  and  accumulating  that  wealth  of  things 
and  thoughts  which  is  the  mark  of  civilization.  I 
have  tried  to  show  by  history  the  progressive  devel- 
opment of  Industry  and  Wealth,  of  Mind  and  Knowl- 
edge, of  Conscience  and  Justice,  of  the  Affections 
and  Philanthropy,  of  the  Soul  and  True  Religion ;  the 
many  forms  of  the  Family,  the  Community,  State 
and  Church,  I  look  on  as  so  many  "  experiments  in 


84  THEODORE    PARKER's 

living,"  all  useful,  each,  perhaps,  in  its  time  and  place 
as  indispensable  as  the  various  geological  changes. 
But  this  progressive  development  does  not  end  with 
us;  we  have  seen  only  the  beginning;  the  future 
triumphs  of  the  race  must  be  vastly  greater  than  all 
accomplished  yet.  In  the  primal  instincts  and  autom- 
atic desires  of  Man,  I  have  found  a  i:)rophecy  that 
what  he  wants  is  possible,  and  shall  one  day  be  actual. 
It  is  a  glorious  future  on  earth  which  I  have  set 
before  your  eyes  and  hopes,  thereby  stimulating  both 
your  patience  to  bear  now  what  is  inevitable,  and 
your  thought  and  toil  to  secure  a  future  triumph  to 
be  had  on  no  otlier  terms.  What  good  is  not  witli  us 
is  before,  to  be  attained  by  Toil  and  Thought,  and 
Religious  Life. 

III.  Absolute  or  Natural  Religion. — In  its  com- 
plete and  perfect  form,  this  is  the  normal  develop- 
ment, use,  discipline,  and  enjoyment  of  every  part 
of  the  body,  and  every  faculty  of  the  spirit ;  the 
direction  of  all  natural  powers  to  their  natural  pur- 
poses. I  have  taught  that  there  were  three  parts 
which  make  up  the  sum  of  true  religion  :  the  Emo- 
tional part,  of  right  Feelings,  where  religion  at  first 
begins  in  the  automatic,  primal  instinct ;  the  Intellec- 
tual part,  of  true  Ideas,  which  either  directly  repre- 
sent the  primitive,  instinctive  feeling  of  whoso  holds 
them,   or   else    produce   a    kindred,   secondary   and 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  85 

derivative  feeling  in  whoso  receives  them ;  and  the 
Practical  part,  of  just  Actions,  which  correspond  to 
the  feelings  and  the  ideas,  and  make  the  mere  thought 
or  emotion  into  a  concrete  deed.  So,  the  true  Reli- 
gion which  comes  from  the  Nature  of  Man,  consists  of 
normal  feelings  towards  God  and  man,  of  correct 
thoughts  about  God,  man,  and  the  relation  between 
them,  and  of  actions  corresponding  to  the  natural 
conscience  when  developed  in  harmony  with  the 
entire  constitution  of  man. 

But  this  religion  which  begins  in  the  instinctive 
feelings,  and  thence  advances  to  reflective  ideas,  as- 
sumes its  ultimate  form  in  the  character  of  men,  and 
so  appears  in  their  actions,  individual,  domestic,  so- 
cial, national,  ecclesiastical,  and  general  —  human ;  it 
builds  manifold  institutions  like  itself,  wherein  it  rears 
up  men  in  its  own  image.  All  the  six  great  historic 
forms  of  religion  —  the  Brahmanic,  Hebrew,  Classic, 
Buddhistic,  Christian,  Mohammedan — profess  to  have 
come  miraculously  from  God,  not  normally  from  man ; 
and,  spite  of  the  excellence  which  they  contain,  and 
the  vast  service  the  humblest  of  them  has  done,  yet 
each  must  ere  long  prove  a  hindrance  to  human  wel- 
fare, for  it  claims  to  be  a  Finality,  and  makes  the 
whole  of  human  nature  wait  upon  an  accident  of 
human  History  —  and  that  accident  the  whim  of  some 
single  man.  The  Absolute  Religion  which  belongs  to 
man's  nature,  and  is  gradually  unfolded  thence,  like 


86  THEODORE    PARKER's 

the  high  achievements  of  art,  science,  literature  and 
poHtics,  is  only  distinctly  conceived  of  in  an  advanced 
stage  of  man's  growth :  to  make  its  idea  a  Fact,  is  the 
highest  triumph  of  the  Human  Race.  This  is  the 
Ideal  of  Humanity,  dimly  seen  but  clearly  felt,  which 
has  flitted  before  the  pious  eyes  of  men  in  all  lands 
and  many  an  age,  and  been  j^rayed  for  as  the  "  King- 
dom of  Heaven."  The  religious  history  of  the  race  is 
the  record  of  man's  continual  but  unconscious  efforts 
to  attain  this  "  Desire  of  all  nations ;  "  poetic  stories 
of  the  "  golden  age,"  or  of  man  in  the  garden  of  Eden, 
are  but  this  natural  wish  looking  back  and  fondly 
dreaming  that  "  the  former  days  were  better  than 
these."  But  while  all  the  other  forms  of  religion 
must  ultimately  fail  before  this,  fading  as  it  flowers, 
each  one  of  them  has  yet  been  a  help  towards  it, 
probably  indispensable  to  the  development  of  man- 
kind. For  each  has  groAvn  out  of  the  condition  of 
some  people,  as  naturally  as  the  wild  primitive  Flora 
of  Santa  Cruz  has  come  from  the  state  of  this  island — 
its  geologic  structure  and  chemical  composition,  its 
tropic  heat,  and  its  special  situation  amid  the  great 
currents  of  water  and  of  air ;  as  naturally  as  the  de- 
pendent Fauna  of  the  place  comes  from  its  Flora. 
Thus  in  the  religions  of  mankind,  as  in  the  various 
governments,  nay,  as  in  the  different  geologic  periods, 
there  is  diversity  of  form,  but  Unity  of  Aim :  destruc- 
tion is  only  to  create ;  Earthquakes,  which  submerged 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  8  i 

the  sunken  continents  whose  former  mountains  are 
but  islands  now,  and  Revolutions,  in  which  the  He- 
brew and  Classic  religions  went  under,  their  poetic 
summits  only  visible,  have  analogous  functions  to  per- 
form —  Handmaids  of  Creation  both. 


For  these  three  great  doctrines  —  of  God,  of  Man, 
of  Religion  —  I  have  depended  on  no  Church  and 
no  Scripture ;  yet  have  I  found  things  to  serve  me  in 
all  Scriptures  and  every  Church.  I  have  sought  my 
authority  in  the  Nature  of  Man  —  in  facts  of  con- 
sciousness within  me,  and  facts  of  observation  in  the 
human  world  without.  To  me  the  Material  World 
and  the  outward  History  of  Man  do  not  supply  a  suf- 
ficient revelation  of  God,  nor  warrant  me  to  speak  of 
Infinite  Perfection.  It  is  only  from  the  Nature  of 
Man,  from  facts  of  intuition,  that  I  can  gather  this 
greatest  of  all  truths,  as  I  find  it  in  my  consciousness 
reflected  back  from  Deity  itself 

I  know  well  what  may  be  said  of  the  "  Feebleness 
of  all  the  Human  Faculties,"  their  ^'  unfaithfulness 
and  unfitness  for  their  work ;  "  — ■  that  the  mind  is  not 
adequate  for  man's  intellectual  function,  nor  the  con- 
science for  the  moral,  nor  the  affections  for  the 
philanthropic,  nor  the  soul  for  the  religious,  nor  even 
the  body  for  the  corporeal,  but  that  each  requires 
miraculous  help  from  a  God  who  is  only  outside  of 


88  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

Humanity !  There  is  a  denial  Avhicli  boldly  rejects 
the  Immortality  of  Man  and  the  existence  of  Deity, 
with  many  another  doctrine,  dear  and  precious  to 
mankind :  but  the  most  dangerous  scepticism  is  that, 
which,  professing  allegiance  to  all  these,  and  crossing 
itself  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  is  yet  so  false  to  the  great 
Primeval  Instincts  of  Man,  that  it  declares  he  cannot 
be  certain  of  anything  he  learns  by  the  normal  exer- 
cise of  any  faculty !  I  have  carefully  studied  this 
School  of  Doubt,  modern,  not  less  than  old,  as  it 
appears  in  history.  In  it  there  are  honest  inquirers 
after  truth,  but  misled  by  some  accident,  and  also 
sophists,  who  live  by  their  sleight  of  mind,  as  jugglers 
by  their  dexterity  of  hand.  But  the  chief  members 
of  this  body  are  the  Mockers,  who,  in  a  world  they 
make  empty,  find  the  most  fitting  echo  to  their 
hideous  laugh;  and  Churchmen  of  all  denominations, 
who  are  so  anxious  to  support  their  ecclesiastic 
theology,  that  they  think  it  is  not  safe  on  its  throne 
till  they  have  annihilated  the  claim  of  Reason,  Con- 
science, the  Afi'ections  and  the  Soul  to  any  voice  in 
determining  the  greatest  concerns  of  man  —  thinking 
there  is  no  place  for  the  Christian  Church  or  the 
Bible  till  they  have  nullified  the  faculties  which 
created  both,  and  rendered  Bible-makers  and  Church- 
founders  impossible.  But  it  is  rather  a  poor  com- 
pliment these  ecclesiastic  sceptics  pay  their  Deity, 
to  say  lie  so  makes  and  manages  the  world  that  we 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  89 

cannot  trust  the  sights  we  see,  the  sounds  we  hear, 
the  thoughts  we  think,  or  the  moral,  affectional, 
religious  emotions  we  feel;  that  we  are  certain 
neither  of  the  intuitions  of  instinct,  nor  the  demon- 
strations of  reason,  but  yet  by  some  anonymous 
testimony,  can  be  made  sure  that  Balaam's  she-ass 
spoke  certain  Hebrew  words,  and  one  undivided 
third  part  of  God  was  "  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  descend- 
ed into  Hell,  and  the  third  day  rose  again,"  to  take 
away  the  wrath  which  the  other  two  undivided  third 
parts  of  God  felt  against  all  mankind  ! 

It  is  not  for  me  to  say  there  is  no  limit  to  the  pos- 
sible attainments  of  man's  religious  or  other  faculties. 
I  will  not  dogmatize  where  I  do  not  know.  But  his- 
tory shows  that  the  Hercules'  Pillars  of  one  age  are 
sailed  through  in  the  next,  and  a  wide  ocean  entered 
on,  which  in  due  time  is  found  rich  with  islands  of 
its  own,  and  washing  a  vast  continent  not  dreamed  of 
by  such  as  slept  within  their  temples  old,  while  it 
sent  to  their  very  coasts  its  curious  joints  of  unwonted 
cane,  its  seeds  of  many  an  unknown  tree,  and  even 
elaborate  boats,  wherein  lay  the  starved  bodies  of 
strange-featured  men,  with  golden  jewels  in  their 
ears.  No  doubt  there  are  limits  to  human  Industry, 
for  finite  man  is  bounded  on  every  side ;  but,  I  take 
it,  the  Hottentot,  the  Gaboon  Negro,  and  the  Wild 
Man  of  New   Guinea,  antecedently,  would   think   it 


90  THEODOEE    PARKER'S 

impossible  that  mankind  should  build  the  Pyramids 
of  Egypt  for  royal  ostentation,  for  defence  throw  up 
the  fortresses  of  Europe  and  the  wall  of  China,  or  for 
economic  use  lay  down  the  roads  of  earth,  of  water, 
iron,  Avood,  or  stone,  which  now  so  swiftly  help 
develop  the  material  resources  and  educate  the  spir- 
itual powers  of  Europe  and  America.  Still  less  would 
they  conceive  it  possible  for  men  to  make  all  the 
farms,  the  mills,  the  shops,  the  houses,  and  the  ships 
of  civilized  mankind.  But  the  philosopher  sees  it  is 
possible  for  toil  and  thought  soon  to  double,  and  then 
multiply  manifold  the  industrial  attainments  of  Bri- 
tain or  New  England. 

No  doubt  there  may  be  a  limit  to  Mathcmatic 
Thought,  though  to  me  that  would  seem  boundless, 
and  every  scientific  step  therein  to  be  certain ;  but 
the  barefooted  negro  who  goads  his  oxen  under  my 
window,  and  can  only  count  his  two  thumbs,  is  no 
limit  to  Archimedes,  Descartes,  Newton,  and  La  Place  ; 
no  more  are  these  men  of  vast  genius  a  limit  to  the 
mathematic  possibility  of  humankind.  They  who  in- 
vented letters,  arithmetic  symbols,  gunpowder,  the 
compass,  the  printing  press,  the  telescope,  the  steam- 
engine,  and  the  telegraph,  only  ploughed  in  corners 
of  the  field  of  human  possibility,  and  showed  its 
bounds  were  not  where  they  had  been  supposed.  A 
thousand  years  ago,  the  world  had  not  a  man,  I 
think,  who  could  even  dream  of  such  a  welfare  as 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  91 

New  England  now  enjoys !  Who  shall  tell  industrious, 
mathematic,  progressive  mankind,  "  Stop  there  !  you 
have  reached  the  utmost  bound  of  human  possibility ; 
beyond  it,  economy  is  waste,  and  science  folly,  and 
progress  downfall!"  No  more  is  the  atheistic  mocker 
or  the  ecclesiastic  bigot  commissioned  to  stop  the 
Human  Race,  with  his  cry,  "  Cease  there,  Mankind, 
thy  religious  search !  for,  thousand-million-headed  as 
thou  art,  thou  canst  know  naught  directly  of  thy 
Grod,  thy  duty,  or  thyself!  Pause,  and  accept  my 
unauthenticated  word ;  stop,  and  despair  !  " 

I  know  too  well  the  atheistic  philosopher's  bitter 
mock,  and  the  haughty  scorn  of  theologic  despisers 
of  mankind,  who,  diverse  in  all  besides,  yet  agree  in 
their  contempt  for  Human  Nature,  glory  in  the  errors 
of  genius,  or  the  grosser  follies  of  mankind,  and  seek 
out  of  the  ruins  of  Humanity,  to  build  up,  the  one 
his  palace,  and  the  other  his  church.  But  I  also 
know  that  Mankind  heeds  neither  the  atheistic  j)hilos- 
opher  nor  the  theologic  despiser  of  his  kind ;  but, 
faithful  to  the  great  Primeval  Instincts  of  the  Soul, 
believing,  creating  and  rejoicing,  goes  on  its  upward 
Avay,  nor  doubts  of  Man  or  God,  of  Sense  or  Intellect. 


These  three  great  doctrines  I  have  preached  pos- 
itively, as  abstract  Truth,  representing  Facts  of  the 
Universe  :   that  might  be  peaceful  work.     But  they 


92  THEODORE    PARKER's 

must  take  a  concrete  form,  and  be  apj)lied  to  tlie 
actual  Life  of  the  Individual,  Family,  Community, 
State  and  Church :  this  would  have  a  less  peace- 
ful look ;  for  I  must  examine  actual  institutions,  and 
criticise  their  aim,  their  mode  of  operation,  and 
their  result.  The  great  obvious  Social  Forces  in 
America  may  be  thus  summed  up :  — 

1.  There  is  the  organized  Trading  Power,  —  hav- 
ing its  homo  in  the  great  towns,  which  seeks  gain 
with  small  regard  to  that  large  Justice  which  rep- 
resents alike  the  mutual  interests  and  duties  of  all 
men,  and  to  that  Humanity  which  interposes  the 
afFectional  instinct  when  Conscience  is  asleep.  This 
poAver  seems  to  control  all  things,  amenable  only 
to  the  all-mighty  dollar. 

2.  The  organized  Political  Power,  the  parties  in 
office,  or  seeking  to  become  so.  This  makes  the 
statutes,  but  is  commonly  controlled  by  the  trading- 
power,  and  has  all  of  its  faults,  often  intensified ; 
yet  it  seems  amenable  to  the  instincts  of  the  Peo- 
ple, who,  on  great  occasions,  sometimes  interfere 
and  change  the  traders'  rule. 

3.  The  organized  Ecclesiastical  Power,  the  various 
sects  which,  though  quite  unlike,  yet  all  mainly  agree 
in  their  fundamental  Principle  of  Yicariousness  — 
an  alleged  lievelation,  instead  of  actual  human  facul- 
ties, salvation  from  God's  wrath  and  eternal  ruin,  by 
the  Atoning  Blood  of  crucified  God.     This  is  more 


EXPEEIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  93 

able  than  either  of  the  others ;  and  though  often  de- 
sj)ised,  in  a  few  years  can  control  them  both.  In  this 
generation  no  American  j)olitician  dares  affront  it. 

4.  The  organized  Literary  Power,  the  endowed 
colleges,  the  periodical  press,  with  its  triple  multi- 
tude of  journals — commercial,  political,  theological — 
and  sectarian  tracts.  This  has  no  original  ideas,  but 
diffuses  the  opinion  of  the  other  j)owers  whom  it 
represents,  whose  Will  it  serves,  and  whose  Kaleido- 
scope it  is. 

I  must  examine  these  four  great  Social  Forces, 
and  show  what  was  good  in  them,  and  what  ill ; 
ascertain  what  Natural  Religion  demanded  of  each, 
and  what  was  the  true  function  of  Trade,  Govern- 
ment, a  Church,  and  a  Literature.  When  I  came 
to  a  distinct  consciousness  of  my  own  first  prin- 
ci^jle,  and  my  consequent  relation  to  what  was  about 
me,  spite  of  the  good  they  contained,  I  found  myself 
greatly  at  variance  with  all  the  four.  They  had  one 
principle,  and  I  another ;  of  course,  our  aim  and 
direction  were  commonly  different,  and  often  opposite. 
Soon  I  found  that  I  was  not  welcome  to  the  American 
Market,  State,  Church,  nor  Press.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise  ;  yet  I  confess  I  had  not  anticipated  so 
thorough  a  separation  betwixt  me  and  these  forces 
which  control  society,  but  had  laid  out  work  I  could 
not  execute  alone,  nor  perhaps  without  the  aid  of  all 
the  four. 


94  THEODORE    PARKER's 

It  is  not  now,  my  Friends,  worth  while  for  me  to 
enter  on  the  details  of  these  plans  which  have  come 
to  nothing,  and  which  I  shall  probably  never  work 
out ;  but  I  ought  at  least  to  name  some  of  the  most 
important  things  I  hoped  to  do.  When  I  first  came 
to  Boston  I  intended  to  do  something  for  the  Perish- 
ing and  Dangerous  Classes  in  our  great  towns.  The 
amount  of  poverty  and  consequent  immorality  in 
Boston  is  terrible  to  think  of,  while  you  remember 
the  warning  of  other  nations,  and  look  to  the  day 
after  to-day  !  Yet  it  seemed  to  me  the  money  given 
by  public  and  private  charity  —  two  fountains  that 
never  fail  in  Puritanic  Boston  —  was  more  than  suf- 
ficient to  relieve  it  all,  and  gradually  remove  the 
deep-seated  and  unseen  cause  which,  in  the  hurry 
of  business  and  of  money,  is  not  attended  to.  There 
is  a  hole  in  the  dim-lit  public  bridge,  where  many 
fall  through  and  perish.  Our  mercy  pulls  a  few  out 
of  the  water ;  it  does  not  stop  the  hole,  nor  light 
the  bridge,  nor  warn  men  of  the  peril  !  We  need 
the  great  Charity  that  palliates  effects  of  wrong,  and 
the  greater  Justice  which  removes  the  Cause. 

Then  there  was  Drunkenness,  which  is  the  greatest 
concrete  curse  of  the  laboring  Protestant  population 
of  the  North,  working  most  hideous  and  wide  ex- 
tended desolation.  It  is  fatal  as  starvation  to  the 
Irish  Catholic.  None  of  the  four  great  social  forces 
is   its  foe.     There,  too,  was  Prostitution  ;  men  and 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  95 

women  mutually  polluted  and  polluting,  blackening 
the  face  of  society  with  dreadful  woe.  Besides,  in 
our  great  towns  I  found  thousands,  especially  the 
poorer  Irish,  oppression  driving  them  to  us,  who, 
save  the  discipline  of  occasional  work,  got  no  educa- 
tion here,  except  what  the  streets  taught  them  in 
childhood,  or  the  Popish  priest,  and  the  American 
demagogue, — their  two  worst  foes, — noisily  offered 
in  their  adult  years  ;  it  seemed  to  me  not  difficult 
for  the  vast  charity  of  Boston  to  furnish  instruction 
and  guidance  to  this  class  of  the  American  people, 
both  in  their  childhood  and  their  later  youth.  That 
admirable  institution,  the  Warren  Street  Chapel  — 
well  nigh  the  most  Christian  public  thing  in  Boston, 
— 'and  the  Children's  Aid  Society  at  New  York,  with 
its  kindred,  abundantly  show  how  much  can  be  done, 
and  at  how  little  cost. 

Still  more,  I  learned  early  in  life  that  the  Criminal 
is  often  the  victim  of  society,  rather  than  its  foe,  and 
that  our  penal  law  belongs  to  the  dark  ages  of  brute 
force,  and  aims  only  to  protect  society  by  vengeance 
on  the  felon,  not  also  to  elevate  mankind  by  refining 
him.  In  my  boyhood  I  knew  a  man,  the  last  result 
of  generations  of  ancestral  crime,  who  spent  more 
than  twenty  years  in  our  State  Prison,  an''  died 
there,  under  sentence  for  life,  whose  entire  illegal 
thefts  did  not  amount  to  twenty  dollars !  and  another, 
not  better  born,  who  lawfully  stole  houses  and  farms, 


96  THEODORE   PARKEE's 

lived  a  "  Gentleman,"  and  at  death  left  a  considerable 
estate,  and  the  name  of  Land-shark.  While  a  theolo- 
gical student,  I  taught  a  class  in  the  Sunday  School  of 
the  State  Prison,  often  sawmy  fellow-townsman, became 
well  acquainted  with  several  convicts,  learned  the 
mode  of  treatment,  and  heard  the  sermons  and  ghastly- 
prayers  which  were  let  fly  at  the  heads  of  the  poor, 
unprotected  wretches;  I  saw  the  ''  Orthodox  preachers 
and  other  helps,"  who  gave  them  "  spiritual  instruc- 
tion," and  learned  the  utter  insufficiency  of  our  penal 
law  to  mend  the  felon  or  prevent  his  growth  in  wick- 
edness. When  I  became  your  minister  I  hoped  to  do 
something  for  this  class  of  men,  whose  crimes  are 
sometimes  but  a  part  of  their  congenital  misfortune  or 
social  infamy,  and  who  are  bereft  of  the  sympathy  of 
mankind,  and  unconstitutionally  beset  with  sectarian 
ministers,  whose  function  is  to  torment  them  before 
their  time. 

For  all  these,  the  Poor,  the  Drunken,  and  the  Ignor- 
ant, for  the  Prostitute  and  the  Criminal,  I  meant  to  do 
something,  under  the  guidance,  perhaps,  or  certainly 
with  the  help,  of  the  controlling  men  of  the  Town  or 
State ;  but,  alas  !  I  was  then  fourteen  years  younger 
than  now,  and  did  not  quite  understand  all  the  conse- 
quences of  my  relation  to  these  great  social  forces, 
or  how  much  I  had  offended  the  religion  of  the  State, 
the  Press,  the  Market  and  the  Church.  Tlio  cry, 
"Destroyer,"  "Fanatic,"  "Infidel,"  "Atheist," "Enemy 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  97 

of  Mankind,"  was  so  -widely  sounded  forth  that  I  soon 
found  I  could  do  little  in  these  great  philanthropies, 
where  the  evil  lay  at  our  own  door.  Many  as  you 
are  for  a  religious  society,  you  were  too  few  and  too 
poor  to  undertake  what  should  be  done  ;  and  outside 
of  your  ranks  I  could  look  for  little  help,  even  by 
words  and  counsel.  Besides,  I  soon  found  my  very 
name  was  enough  to  ruin  any  new  good  enterprise. 
I  knew  there  were  three  periods  in  each  great  move- 
ment of  mankind  —  that  of  Sentiment,  Ideas,  and 
Action :  I  fondly  hoped  the  last  had  come  ;  but  when 
I  found  I  had  reckoned  without  the  host,  I  turned  my 
attention  to  the  two  former,  and  sought  to  arouse  the 
Sentiment  of  Justice  and  Mercy,  and  to  diftiise  the 
Ideas  which  belonged  to  this  fivefold  reformation. 
Hence  I  took  pains  to  state  the  Facts  of  Poverty, 
Drunkenness,  Ignorance,  Prostitution,  Crime  ;  to  show 
their  Cause,  their  Effect,  and  their  Mode  of  Cure, 
leaving  it  for  others  to  do  the  practical  work.  So,  if 
I  wanted  a  measure  carried  in  the  Legislature  of  the 
Town  or  State,  or  by  some  Private  Benevolent  So- 
ciety, I  did  my  work  by  stealth.  I  sometimes  saw 
my  scheme  prosper,  and  read  my  words  in  the  public 
reports,  while  the  whole  enterprise  had  been  ruined 
at  once  if  my  face  or  name  had  appeared  in  connec- 
tion with  it.  I  have  often  found  it  wise  to  withhold 
my  name  from  petitions  I  have  myself  set  agoing  and 
found  successful ;  I  have  got  up  conventions,  or  mass 
9 


98  THEODORE    PARKER's 

meetings,  Avhosc  "  managers  "  asked  mo  not  to  show 
my  face  thereat. 

This  chronic  and  progressive  unpopularity  led  to 
another  change  of  my  plans,  not  abating  my  activity, 
but  turning  it  in  another  direction.  To  accomplish 
my  work,  I  must  spread  my  Ideas  as  widely  as  possible, 
without  resorting  to  that  indecency  of  advertising  so 
common  in  America.  There  was  but  one  considerable 
Publishing  House  in  the  land  that  would  continue  to 
issue  my  works,  —  this  only  at  my  own  cost  and  risk. 
As  it  had  only  a  pecuniary  interest  therein,  and 
that  so  slight,  in  its  enormous  business,  my  books 
did  not  have  the  usual  opportunity  of  getting  known 
and  circulated.  They  were  seldom  otfered  for  sale, 
except  in  one  bookstore  in  Boston ;  for  other  States, 
I  must  often  be  my  own  bookseller.  None  of  the 
Quarterlies  or  Monthlies  was  friendly  to  me ;  most 
of  the  newspapers  were  hostile ;  the  Neio  York  Tri- 
bune and  Evening  Post  were  almost  the  only  excep- 
tions. So  my  books  had  but  a  small  circulation  at 
home  in  comparison  with  their  diffusion  in  England 
and  Germany,  Avliere,  also,  they  received  not  only 
hostile,  but  most  kindly  notice,  and  sometimes  from  a 
famous  pen.  But  another  opportunity  for  diffusing 
my  thought  offered  itself  in  the  Lyceum  or  Public 
Lecture.  Opposed  by  these  four  great  social  forces 
at  liomc,  I  was  surprised  to  find  myself  becoming 
popular  in  the  Lecture  hall.      After  a  few  trials  I 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  99 

"  got  the  hang  of  the  now  school-house/'  and  set  my- 
self to  serious  work  therein. 

For  a  dozen  years  or  more,  I  have  done  my  share 
of  lecturing  in  public,  having  many  invitations  more 
than  I  could  accept.  The  task  was  always  disagree- 
able, contrary  to  my  natural  disposition  and  my 
scholarly  habits.  But  I  saw  the  nation  had  reached 
an  important  crisis  in  its  destination,  and,  though  ig- 
norant of  the  fact,  yet  stood  hesitating  between  two 
principles.  The  one  was  Slavery,  which  I  knew 
leads  at  once  to  Military  Despotism  ^ — political,  eccle- 
siastical, social,  —  and  ends  at  last  in  utter  and 
hopeless  ruin ;  for  no  People  fallen  on  that  road  has 
ever  risen  again ;  it  is  the  path  so  many  other 
Republics  have  taken  and  finished  their  course,  as 
Athens  and  the  Ionian  towns  have  done,  as  Rome 
and  the  Commonwealths  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
other  was  Freedom,  which  leads  at  once  to  Industrial 
Democracy — respect  for  labor,  government  over  all, 
by  all,  for  the  sake  of  all,  rule  after  the  Eternal  Right 
as  it  is  writ  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Universe, — 
securing  welfare  and  progress.  I  saw  that  these 
four  social  forces  were  advising,  driving,  coaxing, 
wheedling  the  People  to  take  the  road  to  ruin ;  that 
our  "  great  men,"  in  which  "  America  is  so  rich 
beyond  all  other  nations  of  the  earth,"  went  strutting 
along  that  path  to  show  how  safe  it  is,  crying  out 
"  Democracy,"  "  Constitution,"  ''  Washington,"  "  Gos- 


100  TFiEononE  Parker's 

pel,"  "  Christianity,"  "  Dollars,"  and  the  like,  while 
the  instincts  of  the  people,  the  traditions  of  our 
history,  and  the  rising  genius  of  men  and  Avomen 
well-born  in  these  times  of  peril,  Avith  still,  small 
voice,  whispered  something  of  Self-evident  Truths 
and  Unalienable  Rights. 

I  knew  the  power  of  a  great  Idea ;  and  spite  of  the 
Market,  the  State,  the  Church,  the  Press,  I  thought 
a  few  earnest  men  in  the  Lecture  Halls  of  the  North, 
might  yet  incline  the  People's  mind  and  heart  to 
Justice  and  the  Eternal  Law  of  God — 'the  only  safe 
rule  of  conduct  for  nations,  as  for  you  and  me, — 
and  so  make  the  American  experiment  a  triumph  and 
a  joy  for  all  Humankind.  Nay,  I  thought  I  could 
myself  bo  of  some  service  in  that  work ;  for  the 
nation  was  yet  so  young,  and  the  instinct  of  popular 
liberty  so  strong,  it  seemed  to  me  a  little  added 
weight  would  turn  the  scale  to  Freedom.  So  I 
appointed  myself  a  Home  Missionary  for  Lectures. 

Then,  too,  I  found  I  could  say  what  I  pleased  in 
the  lecture  room,  so  long  as  I  did  not  professedly 
put  my  thought  into  a  theologic  or  political  shape ; 
while  I  kept  the  form  of  literature  or  philosophy, 
I  could  discourse  of  Avhat  I  thought  most  important, 
and  men  would  listen  one  hour,  two  hours,  nay,  three 
hours ;  and  the  more  significant  the  subject  was,  the 
more  freely,  profoundly  and  fairly  it  was  treated,  the 
more  would  the  people  come,  the  more  eagerly  listen 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  101 

and  enthusiastically  accept.  So  I  spared  no  labor  in 
preparation  or  delivery,  but  took  it  for  granted  the 
humblest  audience,  in  the  least  intelligent  town  or 
city,  was  quite  worthy  of  my  best  efforts,  and  could 
understand  my  facts  and  metaphysic  reasonings.  I 
did  not  fear  the  people  would  be  offended,  though  I 
hurt  their  feelings  never  so  sore. 

Besides,  the  work  was  well  paid  for  in  the  large 
towns,  while  the  small  ones  did  all  they  could  afford, 
—  giving  the  lecturer  for  a  night  more  than  the ' 
schoolmaster  for  a  month.  The  money  thus  ac- 
quired, enabled  me  to  do  four  desirable  things,  which 
it  is  not  needful  to  speak  of  here. 

Since  1848,  I  have  lectured  eighty  or  a  hundred 
times  each  year,  —  in  every  Northern  State  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  once  also  in  a  Slave  State,  and  on 
Slavery  itself.  I  have  taken  most  exciting  and 
important  subjects,  of  the  greatest  concern  to  the 
American  People,  and  treated  them  independent  of 
sect  or  party,  street  or  press,  and  with  what  learning 
and  talent  I  could  command.  I  j)ut  the  matter  in 
quite  various  forms  —  for  each  audience  is  made  up 
of  many.  For  eight  or  ten  years,  on  the  average, 
I  have  spoken  to  sixty  or  a  hundred  thousand 
persons  in  each  year,  besides  addressing  you  on 
Sundays,  in  the  great  Hall  you  threw  open  to  aU 
comers. 

Thus  I  have  had  a  wide  field  of  operation,  where  I 
9* 


102  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

might  rouse  the  Sentiment  of  Justice  and  Mercy, 
diffuse  such  Ideas  as  I  thought  needful  for  the  wel- 
fare and  progress  of  the  people,  and  prepare  for  such 
Action  as  the  occasion  might  one  day  require.  As  I 
was  supposed  to  stand  nearly  alone,  and  did  not 
pretend  to  represent  any  one  but  myself,  nobody  felt 
responsible  for  me ;  so  all  could  judge  me,  if  not 
fairly,  at  least  with  no  party  or  sectarian  prejudice 
in  my  favor ;  and  as  I  felt  responsible  only  to  myself 
and  my  God,  I  could  speak  freely :  this  was  a 
two-fold  advantage.  I  hope  I  have  not  spoken  in 
vain.  I  thought  that  by  each  lecture  I  could  make 
a  new,  deep  and  lasting  impression  of  some  one  Great 
Truth  on  five  thoughtful  men,  out  of  each  thousand 
who  heard  me.  Don't  think  me  extravagant;  it  is 
only  one  half  of  one  per  cent. !  If  I  spoke  but  thus 
efficiently  to  sixty  thousand  in  a  winter,  there  Avould 
be  three  hundred  so  impressed,  and  in  ten  years  it 
would  be  three  thousand !  Such  a  result  Avould 
satisfy  me  for  my  work  and  my  loss  of  scholarly  time 
in  this  Home  Mission  for  lectures.  Besides,  the 
newspapers  of  the  large  towns  spread  wide  the  more 
salient  facts  and  striking  generalizations  of  the 
lecture,  and  I  addressed  the  eyes  of  an  audience 
I  could  not  count  nor  see. 

Still  more,  in  the  railroad  cars  and  steamboats  I 
travelled  by,  and  the  public  or  private  houses  I  stop- 
ped at,  when  the  lecture  Avas  over,  strangers  came  to 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  103 

see  me;  they  were  generally  marked  men — intel- 
lectual, moral,  philanthropic,  at  any  rate,  inquiring 
and  attentive.  We  sometimes  talked  on  great  mat- 
ters ;  I  made  many  acquaintances,  gained  much  mis- 
cellaneous information  about  men  and  things,  the 
state  of  public  opinion,  and,  perhaps,  imparted  some- 
thing in  return.     So  I  studied  while  I  taught. 

Nor  was  this  all.  I  had  been  ecclesiastically  re- 
ported to  the  people  as  a  ''  Disturber  of  the  public 
peace,"  ^'  an  Infidel,"  "  an  Atheist,"  "  an  enemy  to 
mankind."  When  I  was  to  lecture  in  a  little  town, 
the  minister,  even  the  Unitarian,  commonly  stayed  at 
home.  Many,  in  public  or  private,  warned  their  fol- 
lowers "  against  listening  to  that  bad  man.  Do  n't 
look  him  in  the  face ! "  Others  stoutly  preached 
against  me.  So,  in  the  Bar-room  "  I  was  the  song  of 
the  drunkard,"  and  the  minister's  text  in  the  Pulpit. 
But,  when  a  few  hundreds,  in  a  mountain  town  of 
New  England,  or  in  some  settlement  on  a  prairie  of 
the  West,  or,  when  many  hundreds,  in  a  wide  city,  did 
look  me  in  the  face,  and  listen  for  an  hour  or  two 
while  I  spoke,  plain,  right-on,  of  matters  familiar  to 
their  patriotic  hopes,  their  business  and  their  bosoms, 
as  their  faces  glowed  in  the  excitement  of  what  they 
heard,  I  saw  the  clerical  prejudice  was  stealing  out  of 
their  mind,  and  I  left  them  other  than  I  found.  Nay, 
it  has  often  happened  that  a  man  has  told  me,  by  let- 
ter or  word  of  mouth,  "  I  was  warned  against  you. 


104  THEODORE    PARKEIi'S 

but  I  ivoidd  (JO  and  see  for  myself;  and  wlien  I  came 
home  I  said,  'After  all,  this  is  a  man,  and  not  a  Devil ; 
at  least  he  seems  human.  Who  knows  but  he  may  be 
honest,  even  in  his  theological  notions  ?  Perhaps  he 
is  right  in  his  Religion.  Priests  have  been  a  little 
mistaken  sometimes  before  now,  and  said  hard  words 
against  rather  good  sort  of  men,  if  we  can  trust  the 
Bible.     I  am  glad  I  heard  him  !'  " 

Judging  from  the  results,  now  pretty  obvious  to 
"whoso  looks,  and  by  the  many  affectionate  letters 
sent  me  from  all  parts  of  the  North,  I  think  I  did 
not  overrate  the  number  of  thoughtful  men  who  pos- 
sibly might  be  deeply  and  originally  influenced  by 
what  I  said  in  lectures.  Three  thousand  may  seem  a 
large  number ;  I  think  it  is  not  excessive  !  In  the 
last  dozen  years,  I  think  scarcely  any  American,  not 
holding  a  political  office,  has  touched  the  minds  of  so 
many  men,  by  freely  speaking  on  matters  of  the 
greatest  importance,  for  this  day  and  for  ages  to 
come.  I  am  sure  I  have  uttered  great  Truths,  and 
such  are  never  spoke  in  vain ;  I  know  the  eftcct  a 
few  great  thoughts  had  on  me  in  my  youth,  and  judge 
others  by  wdiat  I  experienced  myself.  Those  min- 
isters were  in  the  right,  who,  years  ago,  said :  "  Keep 
that  man  out  of  the  lecture-room ;  do  n't  let  him  be 
seen  in  public.  Every  word  he  speaks,  on  any  sub- 
ject, is  a  blow  against  our  religion  ! "  They  meant, 
against  their  theology. 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  105 

Such  are  the  causes  which  brought  me  into  tlie 
Lecture-room.  I  did  not  neglect  serving  YOU,  while 
I  seemed  only  to  instruct  other  men  ;  for  every  friend 
I  made  in  Pennsylvania  or  Wisconsin  became  an  auxil- 
iary in  that  great  cause,  so  dear  to  you  and  me.  Nay, 
I  did  not  abandon  my  scholarly  work  while  travelling 
and  lecturing.  The  motion  of  the  railroad  cars  gave 
a  pleasing  and  not  harmful  stimulus  to  thought,  and 
so  helped  me  work  out  my  difficult  problems  of  many 
kinds.  I  always  took  a  sack  of  books  along  with  me, 
generally  such  as  required  little  eyesight  and  much 
thought,  and  so  was  sure  of  good  company ;  while 
travelling  I  could  read  and  write  all  day  long ;  but  I 
would  not  advise  others  to  do  much  of  either ;  few 
bodies  can  endure  the  long-continued  strain  on  eye 
and  nerve.  So,  I  lost  little  time,  while  I  fancied  I 
was  doing  a  great  and  needful  work. 


"When  I  first  came  before  you  to  preach,  carefully 
looking  before  and  after,  I  was  determined  on  my 
Purpose,  and  had  a  pretty  distinct  conception  of  the 
Mode  of  Operation.  It  was  not  my  design  to  found 
a  sect,  and  merely  build  up  a  new  ecclesiastical  insti- 
tution, but  to  produce  a  healthy  development  of  the 
highest  faculties  of  men,  to  furnish  them  the  greatest 
possible  amount  of  most  needed  instruction,  and  help 
them  each  to  free  spiritual  individuality.    The  church, 


lOG  THEODORE    PARKKR's 

the  state,  the  community,  were  not  Ends,  a  finality  of 
purpose,  but  Means  to  bring  forth  and  bring  up  indi- 
vidual men.  To  accomplish  tliis  purpose,  I  aimed 
distinctly  at  two  things :  First,  to  produce  the  great- 
est possible  healthy  development  of  the  Religious 
Faculty,  acting  in  harmonious  connection  with  the 
intellectual,  moral,  and  affectional ;  and  second,  to 
lead  you  to  help  others  in  the  same  Avork.  Let  me 
say  a  word  in  detail  of  each  part  of  my  design. 

I.  According  both  to  my  experience  and  observa- 
tion, the  Religious  Element  is  the  strongest  in  the 
spiritual  constitution  of  man,  easily  controlling  all  the 
rest  for  his  good  or  ill.  I  wished  to  educate  this 
faculty  under  the  influence  of  the  true  Idea  of  God, 
of  Man,  and  of  their  mutual  Relation.  I  was  not 
content  with  producing  Morality  alone,  —  the  normal 
action  of  the  Conscience  and  Will,  the  voluntative 
keeping  of  the  Natural  Law  of  Right :  I  saw  the  need 
also  of  Piety,  —  religious  feeling  toward  the  Divine, 
that  instinctive,  purely  internal  love  of  God,  which, 
1  think,  is  not  dependent  on  conscience.  I  was  led 
to  this  aim  partly  by  my  own  disposition,  which,  I 
confess,  naturally  inclined  me  to  spontaneous  pious 
feeling,  my  only  youthful  luxury,  more  than  to  volun- 
tary moral  action  ;  partly  by  my  early  culture,  whicli 
had  given  me  mucli  experience  of  religious  emotions  ; 
and  partly,  also,  by  my  wide  and  familiar  acquaintance 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  107 

with  the  mystical  writers,  the  voluptuaries  of  the 
soul,  who  dwelt  in  the  world  of  pious  feeling,  heed- 
less of  life's  practical  duties,  and  caring  little  for 
science,  literature,  justice,  or  the  dear  charities  of 
common  life. 

I  count  it  a  great  good  fortune  that  I  was  bred 
among  religious  Unitarians,  and  thereby  escaped  so 
much  superstition.  But  I  felt  early  that  the  "  liberal" 
ministers  did  not  do  justice  to  simple  religious  feel- 
ing; to  me  their  preaching  seemed  to  relate  too  much 
to  outward  things,  not  enough  to  the  inward  pious 
life ;  their  prayers  felt  cold ;  but  certainly  they 
preached  the  importance  and  the  religious  value  of 
Morality  as  no  sect,  I  think,  had  done  before.  Good 
works,  the  test  of  true  Religion,  noble  character,  the 
j^roof  of  salvation,  if  not  spoken,  were  yet  implied  in 
their  sermons,  spite  of  their  inconsistent  and  tradi- 
tionary talk  about  '^  Atonement,"  "  Redeemer,"  ''  Sal- 
vation by  Christ,"  and  their  frequent  resort  to  other 
pieces  of  damaged  phraseology.  The  eifect  of  this 
predominant  Morality  was  soon  apparent.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, the  head-quarters  of  the  Unitarians,  not  only 
did  they  gather  most  of  the  eminent  intellect  into 
their  ranks,  the  original  talent  and  genius  of  the  most 
intellectual  of  the  States,  but  also  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  its  moral  talent  and  moral  genius,  most  of 
the  eminent  conscience  and  philanthropy.  Leaving 
out  of  sight  pecuniary  gifts  for  theological  and  denom- 


108  THEODORE    PARKEli's 

iiiational  purposes,  Avhicli  come  from  peculiar  ami 
well-knoAvii  motives,  where  the  Trinitarians  are  pro- 
fessedly superior,  I  think  it  will  l)e  found  that  all  the 
great  moral  and  philanthropic  movements  in  the 
State — social,  ecclesiastical,  and  political — from  1800 
to  18-40,  have  been  chiefly  begun  and  conducted  by 
the  Unitarians.  Even  in  the  Anti-Slavery  enterprise, 
the  most  profound,  unrespectable,  and  unpopular  of 
them  all,  you  are  surprised  to  see  how  many  Uni- 
tarians— even  ministers,  a  timid  race — have  perm<i- 
nently  taken  an  active  and  influential  part.  The  Uni- 
tarians certainly  once  had  this  moral  superiority, 
before  the  free,  young,  and  growing  party  became  a 
Sect,  hide-bound,  bridled  with  its  creed,  harnessed  to 
an  old,  lumbering,  and  crazy  chariot,  urged  with 
sharp  goads  by  near-sighted  drivers,  along  the  dusty 
and  broken  pavement  of  tradition,  noisy  and  shout- 
ing, but  going  nowhere. 

But  yet,  while  they  had  this  great  practical  excel- 
lence, so  obvious  once,  I  thought  they  lacked  the 
deep,  internal  feeling  of  piety,  which  alone  could 
make  it  lasting:  certainly  they  had  not  that  most 
joyous  of  all  delights.  This  fxct  seemed  clear  in 
their  sermons,  their  prayers,  and  even  in  the  hymns 
they  made,  borroAved,  or  '' adapted."  Most  power- 
fully preaching  to  the  Understanding,  tlie  Conscience 
and  the  AVill,  the  cry  Avas  ever,  ''  Duty,  T>uty  !  AVork, 
•Work!"     They  failed  to  address  with   equal  power. 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  109 

the  Soul,  and  did  not  also  shout,  "Joy,  Joy!  Delight, 
Delight !  "  "  Rejoice  in  God  always,  and  again  I  say 
unto  you,  rejoice ! "  Their  vessels  were  full  of 
water :  it  Avas  all  laboriously  pumped  up  from  deep 
wells  ;  it  did  not  gush  out,  leaping  from  the  great 
Spring,  that  is  indeed  on  the  surface  of  the  sloping 
ground,  feeding  the  little  streams  that  run  among 
the  hills,  and  both  quenching  the  wild  asses'  thirst 
and  watering  also  the  meadows  newly  mown,  but 
which  yet  comes  from  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  is 
pressed  out  by  the  cloud-compelling  mountains  that 
rest  thereon.  —  yes,  by  the  gravitation  of  the  earth 
itself 

This  defect  of  the  Unitarians  was  a  profound  one. 
Not  actually,  nor  consciously,  but  by  the  logic  of 
their  conduct,  they  had  broke  with  the  old  ecclesias- 
tic Supernaturalism,  that  with  its  whip  of  fear  yet 
compelled  a  certain  direct,  though  perverted,  action 
of  the  simple  religious  element  in  the  Trinitarians : 
ceasing  to  fear  "■  the  great  and  dreadful  God  "  of  the 
Old  Testament,  they  had  not  quite  learned  to  love 
the  All-Beautiful  and  Altogether  Lovely  of  the 
Universe.  But  in  general  they  had  no  theory  which 
justified  a  more  emotional  experience  of  religion. 
Their  philosophy,  with  many  excellences,  was  sure 
of  no  great  Spiritual  Truth.  To  their  metaphysics 
Eternal  Life  was  only  probable :  the  great  argument 
for  it  came  not  from  the  Substance  of  Human  Nature, 
10 


uo 


THEODORE   PARKER'S 


only  from  an  Accident  in  tlie  personal  History  of  a 
single  man ;  its  proof  was  not  intuitive,  from  the 
primal  instincts  of  mankind ;  nor  deductive,  from  the 
nature  of  God ;  nor  yet  inductive,  from  the  general 
phenomena  of  the  two-fold  Universe ;  it  was  only 
inferential,  from  the  "Resurrection  of  Christ  "  —  an 
exceptional  fact,  without  parallel  in  the  story  of  the 
race,  and  that  resting  on  no  evidence  !  Nay,  in  tlioir 
chief  periodical,  when  it  represented  only  the  opin- 
ions of  the  leaders  of  the  sect,  one  of  their  most 
popular  and  powerful  writers  declared  the  existence 
of  a  God  was  not  a  certainty  of  metaphysical  demon- 
stration, nor  even  a  fact  of  consciousness.  So  this 
great  primal  Truth,  fundamental  to  all  forms  of 
religion,  has  neither  an  objective,  necessary  and 
ontological  root  in  the  metaphysics  of  the  universe, 
nor  yet  a  mere  subjective,  contingent  and  psycholo- 
gical root  in  the  consciousness  of  John  and  Jane,  but, 
like  the  existence  of  "  phlogiston  "  and  "  the  celestial 
fether"  of  the  interstellar  spaces,  it  is  a  matter  of 
conjecture,  of  inference  from  observed  facts  purely 
external  and  contingent ;  or,  like  the  existence  of  the 
"Devil,"  is  wholly  dependent  on  the  "  miraculous  and 
infallible  revelation."  Surely,  a  party  with  no  better 
philosophy,  and  yet  rejecting  instinct  for  guide, 
breaking  with  the  supernatural  tradition  at  the 
Trinity,  its  most  important  link,  could  not  produce  a 
deep  and  continuous  action  of  the  religious  element 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  Ill 

in  the  mass  of  its  members,  when  left  individually- 
free  ;  nor  when  organized  into  a  sect,  with  the  dis- 
cipline of  a  close  corporation,  could  it  continue  to 
advance,  or  even  to  hold  its  own,  and  live  long  on  its 
"  Statement  of  Reasons  for  not  believing  the  Trinity." 
Exceptional  men — like  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  who  leaned 
strongly  towards  the  old  supernaturalism,  or  like  Dr. 
Channing,  whose  deeper  reflection  or  reading  supplied 
him  with  a  more  spiritual  philosophy — might  escape 
the  misfortune  of  their  party ;  but  the  majority  must 
follow  the  logic  of  their  principle.  The  leaders  of 
the  sect,  their  distinctive  creed  only  a  denial,  always 
trembling  before  the  Orthodox,  rejected  the  ablest, 
original  talent  born  among  them ;  nay,  sometimes 
scornfully  repudiated  original  genius,  each  offering  a 
more  spiritual  philosophy,  which  they  mocked  at  as 
"  transcendental,"  and  turned  off  to  the  noisy  road  of 
other  sects,  not  grateful  to  feet  trained  in  paths  more 
natural.  After  denying  the  Trinity,  and  the  Deity  of 
Christ,  they  did  not  dare  affirm  the  Humanity  of 
Jesus,  the  Naturalness  of  Religion  to  man,  the  actual 
or  possible  Universality  of  Inspiration,  and  declare 
that  Man  is  not  amenable  to  ecclesiastic  authority, 
either  the  oral  Roman  Tradition,  or  the  written 
Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures ;  but  naturally  com- 
muning with  God,  through  many  faculties,  by  many 
elements,  has  in  himself  the  Divine  Well  of  Water, 
springing  up  full  of  Everlasting  Life,  and  sparkling 


112  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

with  Eternal  Truth,  and  so  enjoys  continuous  reve- 
lation. 

Alas  !  after  many  a  venturous  and  profitable  cruise, 
while  in  sight  of  port,  the  winds  all  fair,  the  little 
Unitarian  bark,  o'ermastered  by  its  doubts  and  fears, 
reverses  its  course,  and  sails  into  dark,  stormy  seas, 
wdiere  no  such  craft  can  live.  Some  of  the  fragments 
of  the  wreck  will  be  borne  by  oceanic  currents  where 
they  will  be  used  by  the  party  of  progress  to  help 
build  more  sea-worthy  ships ;  whilst  others,  when 
water-logged,  will  be  picked  up  by  the  great  Orthodox 
fleet,  to  be  kiln-dried  in  a  revival,  and  then  serve  as 
moist,  poor  fuel  for  its  culinary  fires.  It  is  a  dismal 
fault  in  a  religious  party,  this  lack  of  Piety,  and  dis- 
mally have  the  Unitarians  answered  it ;  yet  let  their 
great  merits  and  services  be  not  forgot. 

I  found  this  lack  of  the  emotional  part  of  religion 
affected  many  of  the  Reformers.  Some  men  called 
by  that  name,  were  indeed  mere  selfish  tongues, 
their  only  business  to  find  fault  and  make  a  noise ; 
such  are  entitled  to  no  more  regard  than  other  com- 
mon and  notorious  scolds.  But  in  general,  the  leading 
Reformers  are  men  of  large  intellect,  of  profound 
morality,  earnest,  affectional  men,  full  of  philanthropy, 
and  living  lives  worthy  of  the  best  ages  of  humanity. 
But  as  a  general  thing,  it  seemed  to  mo  they  had  not 
a  proportionate  development  of  the  religious  feelings, 
and  so  had  neither  the  most  powerful  solace  for  their 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  113 

many  griefs,  nor  the  profoundest  joy  which  is  needful 
to  hold  them  up  mid  all  they  see  and  suffer  from. 
They,  too,  commonly  shared  this  sensational  philoso- 
phy, and  broke  with  the  ecclesiastic  Supernaturalism 
which  once  helped  supply  its  defects. 

Gradually  coming  to  understand  this  state  of  things, 
quite  early  in  my  ministry  I  tried  to  remedy  it ;  of 
course  I  did  the  work  at  first  feebly  and  poorly.  I 
preached  Piety,  unselfish  love  towards  God,  as  well 
as  Morality,  the  keeping  of  his  Natural  Law,  and 
Philanthropy,  the  helping  of  his  human  children. 
And  I  was  greatly  delighted  to  find  that  my  Dis- 
courses of  Piety  were  as  acceptable  as  my  Sermons 
of  Justice  and  Charity,  touching  the  souls  of  earnest 
men.  Nay,  the  more  spiritual  of  the  ministers  asked 
me  to  preach  such  matters  in  their  puljDits,  which  I 
did  gladly. 

You  have  broken  with  the  traditions  of  the  various 
churches  whence  you  have  come  out,  and  turned 
your  attention  to  many  of  the  evils  of  the  day ;  when 
I  became  your  minister,  I  feared  lest,  in  a  general 
disgust  at  ecclesiastical  proceedings,  you  should  aban- 
don this  very  innermost  of  all  true  religion;  so  I 
have  taken  special  pains  to  show  that  well-propor- 
tioned Piety  is  the  ground  of  all  manly  excellence, 
and  though  it  may  exist,  and  often  does,  without  the 
man's  knowing  it,  yet,  in  its  highest  form,  he  is  con- 
scious of  it.  On  this  theme  I  have  preached  many 
10* 


114  THEODORE    PARKEK'S 

sermons,  which  were  very  dear  to  me,  though  perhaps 
none  of  them  has  yet  been  published.  But  coming 
amongst  you  with  some  ministerial  experience,  and 
much  study  of  the  eifect  of  doctrines,  and  ecclesias- 
tical modes  of  procedure,  I  endeavored  to  guard 
against  the  vices  which  so  often  attend  the  culture 
of  this  sentimental  part  of  religion,  and  to  prevent 
the  fatal  degeneracy  that  often  attends  it.  "When  the 
religious  element  is  actively  excited  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  false  theological  ideas  now  so  prevailing, 
it  often  takes  one  or  both  of  these  two  misdirections  : 
1.  It  tends  to  an  unnatural  Mysticism,  which  dries 
up  all  the  noble  emotions  that  else  would  produce  a 
great  useful  character.  The  delicate  and  refined 
woman  develops  the  sentiment  of  religion  in  her 
consciousness  :  surrounded  by  wealth,  and  seduced  by 
its  charms,  she  reads  the  more  unpractical  parts  of 
the  Bible,  especially  the  Johannic  writings,  the  Song 
of  Solomon,  and  the  more  sentimental  portions  of  the 
Psalms ;  studies  Thomas  a  Kempis,  Guyon,  Fenelon, 
William  Law,  Keble ;  pores  over  the  mystic  meditations 
of  St.  Augustine  and  Bernard ;  she  kneels  before  her 
costly  Prie-Dleu,  or  other  sufficient  altar,  pours  out 
her  prayers,  falls  into  an  ecstasy  of  devout  feeling, 
and,  elegantly  dishevelled  like  a  Magdalen,  weeps 
most  delicious  tears.  Then  rising  thence,  she  folds 
her  idle,  unreligious  hands,  and,  with  voluptuous 
scorn,  turns  off  from  the  homely  duties  of  common 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  115 

life  ;  while,  not  only  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  ignorant, 
the  drunken,  the  enslaved  and  the  abandoned,  are  left 
uncared  for,  but  her  own  household  is  neglected,  her 
husband,  her  very  children,  go  unblessed.  She  lives 
a  life  of  intense  religious  emotion  in  private,  but  of 
intense  selfishness  at  home,  and  profligate  worldliness 
abroad.  Her  pious  feeling  is  only  moonshine  ;  nay, 
it  is  a  Will-o'-the-wisp,  a  wandering  fire,  which 

"  Leads  to  bewilder,  and  dazzles  to  blind." 

She  is  a  voluptuary  of  the  Soul,  often  likewise  in  the 
senses ;  her  prayers  are  worth  no  more  than  so  much 
novel-reading ;  she  might  as  well  applaud  Don  Gio- 
vanni with  her  laugh  at  the  opera,  as  St.  John  with 
her  tears  at  church.  This  woman's  religion  is  internal 
glitter,  which  gives  nor  light  nor  heat.  ''  Like  a  fly 
in  the  heart  of  an  apple,  she  dwells  in  perpetual 
sweetness,"  but  also  in  perpetual  sloth,  a  selfish  wan- 
ton of  the  soul.  In  his  Pare  aux  cerfs,  Louis  XV. 
trained  his  maiden  victims  to  this  form  of  devotion  ! 

2.  It  leads  to  ecclesiastical  Ritualism.  This  is  the 
more  common  form  in  New  England,  especially  in 
hard  men  and  women.  They  join  a  church,  and  crowd 
the  ecclesiastical  meetings.  Bodily  presence  there  is 
thought  a  virtue ;  they  keep  the  Sunday  severely 
idle ;  their  ecclesiastical  decorum  is  awful  as  a  win- 
ter's night  at  the  North  Pole  of  cold ;  with  terrible 
punctuality  they  attend  to  tlie   ordinance  of  bread 


116  THEODOEE    PARKER'S 

and  wine,  looking  grim  and  senseless  as  the  death's 
head  on  the  tombstones  close  by.  Their  babies  are 
sprinkled  with  water,  or  themselves  plunged  all  over 
in  it ;  they  have  morning  prayers  and  evening  prayers, 
grace  before  meat,  and  after  meat,  grace ;  nay,  they 
give  money  for  the  theological  purposes  of  their 
sect,  and  religiously  hate  men  not  of  their  household 
of  faith.  Their  pious  feeling  has  spent  itself  in 
secreting  this  abnormal  shell  of  ritualism,  which  now 
cumbers  them  worse  than  Saul's  great  armor  on  the 
stripling  shepherd  lad.  What  can  such  Pachyderms 
of  the  Church  accomplish  that  is  good,  with  such  an 
elephantiasis  to  swell,  and  bark,  and  tetter  every  limb? 
Their  religious  feeling  runs  to  shell,  and  has  no  other 
influence.  They  sell  rum,  and  trade  in  slaves  or 
coolies.  They  are  remorseless  creditors,  unscrupu- 
lous debtors  ;  they  devour  widow's  houses.  Yain  are 
the  cries  of  Humanity  in  such  ears,  stuflFed  with  con- 
densed wind.  Their  lives  are  little,  dirty,  and  mean. 
Mindful  of  these  two  vices,  which  are  both  diseases 
of  the  misdirected  soul,  and  early  aware  that  Devout- 
ness  is  by  no  means  the  highest  expression  uf  love 
for  God,  I  have  attempted  not  only  to  2:)roducc  a  nor- 
mal development  of  religious  feeling,  but  to  give  it 
the  normal  direction  to  the  homely  duties  of  common 
life,  in  the  kitchen,  the  parlor,  nursery,  school-room, 
in  the  field,  market,  office,  shop,  or  ship,  or  street,  or 
wherever  the  lines  of  our  lot  have  fallen  to  us ;  and 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  IIT 

to  the  "  primal  virtues,"  that  shine  aloft  as  stars  which 
mariners  catch  glimpses  of  mid  ocean's  rack,  and 
learn  their  course,  and  steer  straight  in  to  their 
desired  haven ;  and  also,  to  the  '^  charities  that  soothe, 
and  heal,  and  bless,"  and  which  are  scattered  at  man- 
kind's feet  like  flowers,  each  one  a  beauty  the  bee 
sucks  honey  from,  and  a  seed  to  sow  the  world  with 
wholesome  loveliness  ;  —  for  it  is  plain  to  me  that  the 
common  duties  of  natural  life  are  both  the  best  school 
for  the  development  of  piety,  and  the  best  field  for 
its  exercise  when  grown  to  manly  size. 

II.  Partly  for  your  education  in  true  religion,  and 
partly  to  promote  the  welfare  of  your  brother  man,  I 
have  preached  much  on  the  great  Social  Duties  of 
your  time  and  place,  recommending  not  only  '^  pallia- 
tive Charity,"  but  still  more  '^  remedial  Justice."  So 
I  have  not  only  preached  on  the  private  Individual 
Virtues,  which  are,  and  ought  to  be,  the  most  constant 
theme  of  all  pulpits,  but  likewise,  on  the  public  Social 
Virtues,  that  are  also  indispensable  to  the  general 
welfare.  This  work  brought  me  into  direct  relation 
with  the  chief  social  evils  of  our  day.  In  treating 
these  matters  I  have  proceeded  with  much  caution, 
beginning  my  attack  a  great  ways  off.  First  of  all,  I 
endeavored  to  establish  philosophically  the  Moral 
Principle  I  should  appeal  to,  and  show  its  origin  in 
the    Constitution   of  Man,  to  lay  down  the   Natural 


118  THEODORE    PARKER's 

Law  so  plain  that  all  might  acknowledge  and  accept 
it;  next  I  attempted  to  show  what  Welfare  had 
followed  in  human  history  from  keeping  this  law,  and 
what  Misery  from  violating  it ;  then  I  applied  this 
moral  principle  of  nature  and  the  actual  experience 
of  history  to  the  special  public  vice  I  wished  to 
whelm  over.  Such  a  process  may  seem  slow ;  I 
think  it  is  the  only  one  sure  of  permanent  good 
effects.  In  this  manner  I  have  treated  several  prom- 
inent evils. 

1.  I  have  preached  against  Intemperance,  showing 
the  monstrous  evil  of  Drunkenness,  the  material  and 
moral  ruin  it  works  so  widely.  My  first  offence  in 
preaching  came  when  I  first  spoke  on  the  misery 
occasioned  by  this  ghastly  vice.  The  victims  of  it 
sat  before  me,  and  were  in  great  wrath ;  they  never 
forgave  me.  Yet,  I  have  not  accepted  the  opinion  of 
the  leading  temperance  men,  that  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating drinks  is  in  itself  a  moral  or  a  physical  evil. 
I  found  they  had  not  only  a  medical,  but  also  a 
dietetic  use  to  serve,  and  in  all  stages  of  develop- 
ment above  the  savage,  man  resorts  to  some  sort  of 
stimulus  as  food  for  the  nervous  system :  for  a 
practice  so  nearly  universal,  I  suppose  there  must  be 
a  cause  in  man's  natural  relation  to  the  world  of 
matter.  Accordingly,  I  do  not  like  the  present  legal 
mode  of  treating  the  vice,  thinking  it  rests  on  a  false 
principle  which  will  not  long  work  well ;  yet  public 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER,  119 

opinion,  now  setting  strong  against  this  beastly  vice, 
required  the  experiment,  which  could  never  be  tried 
under  better  auspices  than  now.  But  I  have  gladly 
joined  with  all  men  to  help  put  down  this  frightful 
vice,  which  more  than  any  other  concrete  cause 
hinders  the  welfare  and  progress  of  the  working 
people  of  the  North.  It  was  the  first  public  social 
evil  I  ever  attacked.  I  have  not  ceased  to  warn  old 
and  young  against  this  monstrous  and  ugly  sin,  and 
to  call  on  the  appointed  magistrates  to  use  all  their 
official  power  to  end  so  fatal  a  mischief  In  a  great 
trading  town,  of  course  such  calls  are  vain ;  the 
Interest  of  the  Few  is  against  the  Virtue  of  the 
People. 

2.  I  have  preached  against  Covetousness,  —  the 
abnormal  desire  of  accumulating  property.  In  the 
Northern  States  our  civilization  is  based  on  respect 
for  industry  in  both  forms.  Toil  and  Thought.  Prop- 
erty is  the  product  of  the  two :  it  is  human  power 
over  Nature,  to  make  the  material  forces  of  the  world 
supply  the  wants  of  man ;  its  amount  is  always  the 
test  of  civilization.  Our  political  and  social  institu- 
tions do  not  favor  the  accumulation  of  wealth  in  a 
few  men  or  a  few  families  ;  no  permanent  entails 
are  allowed ;  it  follows  the  natural  laws  of  distribu- 
tion amongst  all  the  owner's  children,  or  according  to 
his  personal  caprice ;  in  a  few  generations  a  great 
estate  is  widely  scattered  abroad.     But  as  we  have 


120  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

no  hereditary  honors,  office,  or  even  title,  and  as 
wealth  is  all  the  parent  can  bequeath  his  child,  it 
becomes  not  only  a  material  power,  but  also  a  social 
distinction  —  the  only  one  transmissible  from  sire  to 
son.  So  wealth,  and  not  birth  from  famous  ancestors, 
is  the  thing  most  coveted;  the  stamp  of  the  all-mighty 
dollar  is  the  mark  of  social  distinction ;  science  may 
be  accounted  folly,  and  genius  madness,  in  the  paved 
or  the  furrowed  town,  but  money  is  power  in  each. 
American  ''  Aristocracy "  rests  on  this  movable 
basis ;  it  is  Plutocracy :  every  poor  white  boy  may 
hope  to  trundle  its  golden  wheels  on  to  his  little 
patch  of  ground,  for  the  Millionnaire  is  not  born,  but 
self-made.  Hence  comes  an  intense  desire  of  riches ; 
a  great  amount  of  practical  talent  goes  out  in  quest 
thereof  Beside  its  intrinsic  character,  respect  for 
money  is  in  America  what  loyalty  to  the  crown  and 
deference  to  feudal  superiors  is  in  England  :  "  the 
ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib," 
and  the  Americans  the  millionnaire,  the  highest  pro- 
duct of  plutocracy. 

Now  on  the  whole,  I  do  not  find  this  desire  of 
property  excessive  in  the  people  of  the  North.  I 
would  greaten  rather  than  lessen  it,  for  it  is  the 
motive  of  our  general  enterprise,  the  proximate  cause 
of  much  of  our  welfare  and  success.  No  nation  was 
ever  too  well  fed,  housed,  clad,  adorned  and  com- 
forted in  general :   poverty,  subordination  to  material 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  121 

want,  is  still  the  great  concrete  barrier  to  civiliza- 
tion ;  '^  the  nations  of  the  world  must  "  think  chiefly 
of  what  they  shall  eat  and  drink,  and  wherewithal  be 
clothed.  In  this  generation,  the  productive  industry 
of  New  England  seems  vulgar  to  careless  eyes,  and 
excessive  to  severe  ones ;  but  it  is  yet  laying  the 
material  and  indispensable  foundation  for  a  spiritual 
civilization  in  some  future  age,  more  grand,  I  think, 
than  mankind  has  hitherto  rejoiced  in.  For  not  only 
will  the  People's  property  be  greater  in  proportion 
to  their  number  —  their  power  to  feed,  clothe,  house, 
adorn  and  comfort  themselves,  —  but  it  will  be  more 
widely  distributed,  consequently  directed  with  more 
wisdom  and  humanity,  and  so  bring  forth  and  develop 
both  more  and  higher  talents.  I  have  advised  all  men 
to  shun  poverty  ;  to  seek  a  generous  competence  for 
themselves  and  their  dependents,  and  that  too  by 
honest  work,  earning  all  they  take.  I  see  that  a 
great  fortune,  thus  acquired,  may  now  be  a  nobler 
honor  than  all  the  red  laurels  of  Nelson  or  Welling- 
ton, as  well  as  a  power  of  use  and  beauty  for  time  to 
come.  I  honor  the  manly,  self-denying  enterprise 
which  starts  with  no  heritage  but  itself,  and  honestly 
earns  a  great  estate.  The  man  who  makes  a  school- 
book  like  Colburn's  "  First  Lessons  in  Arithmetic," 
or  invents  a  labor-saving  contrivance  like  the  sewing 
machine,  or  the  reaping  and  thrashing  machines,  or 
who  by  trade  develops  the  resources  of  the  country, 
11 


122  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

deserves  a  pay  proportionate  to  his  service.  A  Bos- 
ton merchant  died  in  1847,  who  had  so  helped  turn 
the  rivers  of  New  England  into  spinners  and  weavers, 
that  I  think  he  earned  millions  of  dollars  more  than 
he  received.  If  a  man  fully  pay  in  efBcient,  produc- 
tive toil  and  thought,  he  is  entitled  to  all  he  gets, 
one  dollar  or  many  million  dollars ;  he  earns  his 
riches,  gives  equivalent  for  equivalent  —  for  all 
honest  traflSc  is  but  actual  barter,  mutual  exchange 
of  my  work  and  your  work,  —  and  if  his  estate  be  but 
what  he  has  thus  actually  and  honestly  paid  for  with 
a  service  given,  equivalent  to  the  service  received, 
what  he  can  virtuously  keep  or  humanely  apply  and 
expend,  then  it  Avill  never  be  too  large. 

But  Covetousness — the  lust  after  property  already 
created  ;  the  dishonest  desire  to  get  wealth  without 
paying  for  it  with  proportionate  service  by  toil  and 
thought ;  the  wish  to  hoard  it  as  the  chief  object  in 
life,  holding  for  no  generous  use ;  to  expend  it  in 
personal  luxury,  making  man  a  delicate  swine  to  eat 
and  drink  beyond  the  needs  of  generous  nature,  a 
butterfly  to  glitter  in  the  public  sun,  or  before  the 
private  stars  of  fashion,  a  sloth,  to  lie  idle  and  deform 
the  ground ;  or  to  exhibit  it  for  ostentation,  foster- 
ing an  unwieldy  self-esteem  or  more  disgraceful 
vanity,  —  this  is  a  vice  I  have  warned  men  against 
continually:  I  began  early.  It  is  a  popular  and 
most  respectable  offence,  often  counted  a  virtue.     It 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  123 

assumes  many  forms,  now  terrible  and  then  ridicu- 
lous. I  have  dealt  with  it  accordingly,  now  exposing 
its  injustice  or  its  folly,  now  satirizing  its  vulgar 
indecency,  now  showing  that  the  ill-bred  children  of 
men  grossly  rich  come  to  a  fate  no  better  than  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  grossly  poor ;  that  volun- 
tary beggars  in  rufHes  and  voluntary  beggars  in  rags, 
are  alike  supported  at  the  public  cost,  paying  nothing 
for  what  they  take,  and  so  should  be  objects  of  con- 
tempt in  a  world  where  he  is  greatest,  who  does  the 
most  and  best. 

I  have  often  spoken  of  the  tyranny  of  the  rich  over 
the  thriving  and  the  poor,  —  our  Country,  State,  and 
Town,  all  furnishing  grievous  examples  of  the  fact. 
"As  the  lion  eateth  up  the  wild  ass  in  the  wilderness, 
so  the  rich  eateth  up  the  poor,"  is  as  true  now  in  New 
England  as  two  thousand  years  ago  in  Egypt.  But 
when  I  have  seen  a  man  with  large  talents  for  busi- 
ness helping  others  while  he  helped  himself,  enrich- 
ing his  workmen,  promoting  their  education,  their 
virtue  and  self-respect,  I  have  taken  special  delight 
in  honoring  such  an  act  of  practical  humanity.  Hap- 
pily we  need  not  go  out  of  Boston  to  find  examples 
of  this  rare  philanthropy. 

3.  As  I  was  a  schoolmaster  at  seventeen,  though 
more  from  necessity  than  early  fitness,  I  fear,  and 
chairman  of  a  town  school  committee  at  twenty-two, 
I  have  naturally  felt  much  interest  in  the  Education 


124  THEODOKE    PARKER'S 

of  the  people,  and  have  often  preached  thereon.  But 
I  have  seen  the  great  defect  of  our  culture,  both  in 
public  and  private  schools  ;  our  education  is  almost 
entirely  intellectual,  not  also  moral,  affectional,  and 
religious.  The  Sunday-Schools  by  no  means  remedy 
this  evil,  or  attempt  to  mend  it ;  they  smartly  exer- 
cise the  devotional  feelings,  accustom  their  pupils  to 
a  certain  ritualism,  which  is  destined  only  to  serve 
ecclesiastical,  and  not  humane  purposes ;  they  teach 
some  moral  precepts  of  great  value ;  but  their  chief 
function  is  to  communicate  theological  doctrine,  based 
on  the  alleged  supernatural  revelation,  and  confirmed 
bj  miracles,  which  often  confound  the  intellect,  and 
befool  the  conscience.  They  do  not  even  attempt 
any  development  of  the  higher  faculties  to  an  original 
activity  at  all  commensurate  with  the  vigorous  action 
of  the  understanding.  In  the  Public  Schools  there 
are  sometimes  devotional  exercises,  good  in  them- 
selves, but  little  pains  is  directly  taken  to  educate  or 
even  instruct  the  deeper  faculties  of  our  nature.  The 
evil  seems  to  increase,  for  of  late  years  many  of  the 
reading-books  of  our  public  and  private  schools  seem 
to  have  been  compiled  by  men  with  only  the  desire  of 
gain  for  their  motive,  wlio  have  rejected  those  pieces 
of  prose  or  poetry  which  appeal  to  what  is  deepest 
in  human  nature,  rouse  indignation  against  successful 
wrong,  and  fill  tlic  child  witli  generous  sentiments 
and   great    ideas.     Sunday-School    books    seem    yet 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  125 

worse,  so  loaded  with  the  superstitions  of  the  sects. 
The  heroism  of  this  age  finds  no  voice  nor  language 
in  our  Schools. 

But  this  lack  of  morality  in  our  schemes  of  culture 
appears  most  eminent  in  the  Superior  Education,  in 
colleges  and  other  costly  seminaries  for  maids  and 
men.  The  higher  you  go  up  in  the  scale  of  institu- 
tions, the  less  proportionate  pains  is  taken  with  the 
development  of  conscience,  the  affections,  and  the 
soul ;  in  the  dame  school  for  infants,  something  is 
done  to  make  the  child  "  a  good  boy,"  or  ''  a  good 
girl,"  but  almost  nothing  in  the  richest  and  most  re- 
spectable colleges.  They  are  commonly  seats  of  an 
unprogressive  and  immoral  Conservatism,  where  the 
studious  youth  may  learn  many  an  important  disci- 
pline—  mathematical,  philological,  scientific,  literary, 
metaphysical,  and  theologic,  —  but  is  pretty  sure  to 
miss  all  effective  instruction  in  the  great  art  and 
science  of  personal  or  public  Humanit3^  Hence  our 
colleges  are  institutions  not  only  to  teach  the  mind, 
but  also  for  the  general  JiunJcerizatio7i  of  young  men  ; 
and  a  professor  is  there  sometimes  unscrupulously 
appointed  whose  nature  and  character  make  it 
notorious  that  his  chief  function  must  necessarily  be 
to  poison  the  waters  of  life,  which  young  men,  from 
generation  to  generation,  will  be  compelled  to  bow 
down  at,  and  drink  !  In  the  last  forty  years,  I  think 
no  New  England  college,  collective  Faculty  or  pupils, 
11* 


126  THKODOHE    PAHKKR's 

has  shown  sympathy  with  any  of  tlie  great  forward 
movements  of  mankind,  Avhicli  are  indicated  by  some 
national  outbreak,  like  the  French  Revolutions  of 
1830  or  1848! 

From  this  fatal  defect  of  our  scheme  of  culture,  it 
comes  to  pass  that  the  class  which  has  the  superior 
education — ^  ministers,  professors,  lawyers,  doctors, 
and  the  like  —  is  not  only  never  a  leader  in  any  of 
the  great  humane  movements  of  the  age,  where  Jus- 
tice, Philanthropy  or  Piety  is  the  motive,  but  it  con- 
tinually retards  all  efforts  to  reform  evil  institutions, 
or  otherwise  directly  increase  the  present  welfare  or 
the  future  progress  of  mankind.  The  scholars'  cul- 
ture has  palsied  their  natural  instincts  of  humanity, 
and  gives  them  instead,  neither  the  personal  convic- 
tions of  free,  moral  reflection,  nor  the  traditional 
commands  of  church  authority,  but  only  the  maxims 
of  vulgar  thrift, '' get  the  most,  and  give  the  least; 
buy  cheap,  and  sell  dear!"  Exceptional  men,  like 
Channing,  Pierpont,  Emerson,  Ripley,  ]\rann,  Rantoul, 
Phillips,  Sumner,  and  a  few  others,  only  confirm  the 
general  rule,  that  the  educated  is  also  a  selfish  class, 
morally  not  in  advance  of  the  mass  of  men.  Xo 
thoughtful,  innocent  man,  arraigned  for  treason, 
would  like  to  put  himself  on  the  college,  and  be  tried 
by  a  jury  of  twelve  scholars ;  it  were  to  trust  in  the 
prejudice  and  technic  sophistry  i)f  a  class,  not  to  "  j)ut 
himself  on  the  country/'  and  be  judg(^d  liy  the  Moral 
Instincts  of  the  people. 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  127 

Knowing  these  facts — and  I  found  tliera  out  pretty 
earh'  —  I  have  told  them  often  in  public,  and 
shown  the  need  of  a  thorough  reform  in  our  educa- 
tional institutions.  Still  more  have  I  preached  on 
the  necessity  that  you  should  do  in  private  for  your 
children  what  no  school  in  this  age  is  likely  to  at- 
tempt—  secure  such  a  great  development  of  the  moral, 
afifectional,  and  religious  powers,  as  shall  preserve  all 
the  high  instincts  of  nature,  while  it  enriches  every 
faculty  by  the  information  given.  I  need  not  noAV 
speak  of  what  I  had  long  since  intended  to  do  amongst 
you  in  this  matter,  when  the  opportunity  should  offer; 
for,  alas,  when  it  came,  my  power  to  serve  you  quickly 
went. 

4.  I  have  preached  much  on  the  Condition  of 
Woman.  I  know  the  great,  ineffaceable  difference 
between  the  spiritual  constitution  of  her  and  man, 
and  the  consequent  difference  in  their  individual, 
domestic  and  social  functions.  But,  examining  the 
matter  both  philosophically  and  historically,  it  seems 
clear  that  woman  is  man's  equal,  individually  and 
socially  entitled  to  the  same  rights.  There  is  no 
conscious  hostility  or  rivalry  between  the  two,  such 
as  is  often  pretended;  man  naturally  inclines  to  be  a 
little  more  than  just  to  her,  she  a  little  more  than  fair 
to  him  ;  a  man  w^ould  find  most  favor  with  a  Jury  of 
Women,  as  boys  with  nurses.  But,  certainly,  her 
condition  is  sadly  unfortunate  ;  for,  whether  treated  as 


128  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

ii  Doll  or  Drudge,  she  is  practically  regarded  as  Man's 
inferior,  intended  by  nature  to  be  subordinate  to  him, 
subservient  to  his  purposes  ;  not  a  free  spiritual  indi- 
viduality like  him,  but  a  dependent  parasite  or  a  com- 
manded servant.  This  idea  appears  in  all  civilized 
legislation  ;  and  in  the  "  revealed  religion  "  of  Jews 
and  Christians,  as  well  as  in  that  of  Brahmins  and 
Mohammedans.  Even  in  New  England,  no  public 
provision  is  made  to  secure  sujDcrior  education  for 
girls  as  for  boys.  Woman  has  no  place  in  the  superior 
industry,  —  shut  out  from  the  legal,  clerical  and  med- 
ical j^rofessions,  and  the  higher  departments  of  trade, 
limited  to  domestic  duties,  and  other  callings  which 
pay  but  little  ;  when  she  does  a  man's  service  she  has 
but  half  of  his  reward  ;  no  political  rights  are  awarded 
to  her;  she  is  always  taxed,  but  never  represented.  If 
married,  her  husband  has  legally  an  unnatural  control 
over  her  property  and  her  person,  and,  in  case  of 
separation,  over  her  children.  A  young  man  with  su- 
perior talents,  born  to  no  other  heritage,  can  acquire 
wealth,  or,  unaided,  obtain  the  best  education  this  age 
makes  possible  to  any  one :  but  with  a  woman  it  is 
not  so  ;  if  poor,  she  can  only  be  enriched  by  marriage  ; 
hence  mercantile  wedlock  is  far  more  pardonable 
in  her  ;  no  talents,  no  genius  can  secure  a  poor  man's 
daughter  her  natural  share  in  the  high  culture  of  the 
age.  The  condition  of  woman  follows  unavoidably 
I'loiu  the  popular  idea,  which  she  also  shares  often  in 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  129 

the  heroic  degree,  that  she  is  by  nature  inferior  to 
man :  jDi'ostitution  and  its  half-known  evils  come  from 
this  as  naturally  as  crime  and  drunkenness  from 
squalid  want  — •  as  j)lants  from  seeds. 

I  have  preached  the  equivalency  of  man  and 
woman,  —  that  each  in  some  ^particulars  is  inferior  to 
the  other,  but,  on  the  whole,  Mankind  and  Woman- 
kind, though  so  diverse,  are  yet  equal  in  their  natural 
faculties  ;  and  have  set  forth  the  evils  which  come  to 
both  from  her  present  inferior  position,  her  exclusion 
from  the  high  places  of  social  or  political  trust.  But  I 
have  thought  she  will  generally  prefer  domestic  to 
public  functions,  and  have  found  no  philosophic  or 
historic  argument  for  thinking  she  will  ever  incline 
much  to  the  rough  Avorks  of  man,  or  take  any  consid- 
erable part  in  Republican  politics  ;  in  a  court  like 
that  of  Louis  XY.,  or  Napoleon  III.,  it  might  be  dif- 
ferent ;  but  I  have  demanded  that  she  should  decide 
that  question  for  herself,  choose  her  own  place  of 
action,  have  her  vote  in  all  political  matters,  and  be 
eligible  to  any  office. 

In  special,  I  have  urged  on  you  the  duty  of  attend- 
ing to  the  education  of  young  women,  not  only  in 
accomplishments,  —  which  are  so  often  laborious  in 
the  process,  only  to  be  ridiculous  in  the  display,  and 
idle  in  their  results,  —  but  in  the  grave  discipline  of 
stud}^,  and  for  the  practical  duties  of  life.  A  woman 
voluntarily  ignorant  of  household  affairs  and  the  man- 


130  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

ageinent  of  a  family,  slimild  l)o  nn  ohjcet  of  pity  or  of 
contempt  ;  wliilc  the  women  of  Xew  England  incline 
to  despise  the  indispensable  labor  of  housekeeping, 
and  can  neither  make  wearable  garments,  nor  eatable 
bread,  I  have  sometimes  doubted  Avhether  the  men  of 
NeAV  England,  irritated  with  their  sour  fare,  would 
think  them  quite  fit  to  make  laws  for  the  State,  or 
even  for  the  Union.  I  have  also  called  your  attention 
to  those  most  unfortunate  outcasts,  the  Friendless 
Young  Girls  in  the  streets  of  your  own  City,  the  most 
abandoned  of  the  Perishing  Class,  who  will  soon  be- 
come the  most  harmful  of  the  Dangerous  Class — 
for  prostitution  is  always  two-fold,  male  as  well  as 
female  damnation. 

It  is  delightful  to  see  the  change  now  taking  place 
in  the  popular  idea  of  Woman,  and  the  legislation  of 
the  Northern  States,  This  reform  at  once  will 
directly  affect  half  the  population,  and  soon  also  the 
other  half  I  am  not  alarmed  at  the  evils  Avhich 
obviously  attend  this  change,  —  the  growing  dislike 
of  maternal  duties,  the  increase  of  divorces,  the  false 
theories  of  marriage,  and  the  unhapjoy  conduct  which 
thence  results ;  all  these  are  transient  things,  and 
will  soon  be  gone  —  the  noise  and  dust  of  the  wagon 
that  brings  the  harvest  home. 

5.  The  American  people  arc  making  one  of  the 
most  important  experiments  ever  .attempted  on  earth, 
endeavoring   to   establish   an  Industrial    Democracy, 


EXPEEIENCE   AS   A    MINISTER.  131 

with  the  principle  that  all  men  are  equal  in  their 
natural  rights,  which  can  be  alienated  only  by  the 
personal  misconduct  of  their  possessor:  the  great 
body  of  the  People  is  the  source  of  all  political 
power,  the  maker  of  all  laws,  the  ultimate  arbiter  of 
all  measures ;  while  the  special  magistrates,  high  and 
low,  arc  but  appointed  agents,  acting  under  the 
power  of  attorney  the  people  intrusts  them  with. 
This  experiment  was  perhaps  never  tried  before, 
certainly  not  on  so  large  a  scale,  and  with  so  fair  an 
opportunity  for  success  ;  but  wise  men  have  always 
foretold  its  utter  failure,  and  pointed  to  the  past  as 
confirming  this  prophecy.  Certainly,  we  have  Hu- 
man History  against  us,  but  I  think  Human  Nature  is 
on  our  side,  and  find  no  reason  to  doubt  the  triumph 
of  the  American  idea.  So  I  have  taken  a  deep 
interest  in  Politics,  important  not  merely  as  represent- 
ing the  national  House-keeping,  but  also  the  public 
Morality,  and  so  tending  to  help  or  hinder  the 
people's  success.  Never  failing  to  vote,  I  have  yet 
kept  myself  out  of  the  harness  of  every  party ; 
responsible  to  none  and  for  none,  I  have  been  free  to 
blame  or  praise  the  Principles  and  the  Purposes  of 
all,  their  Measures  and  their  Men.  Addressing  such 
multitudes,  most  of  them  younger  than  I,  in  times 
like  the  last  fourteen  years,  when  such  important 
Interests  came  up  for  public  adjudication,  and  when 
the  great  Principles  of  all  national  morality  have  been 


132  THKODOKE    PAKKKK'S 

solemnly  denied  by  famous  officials,  men  also  of  great 
personal  power,  who  declared  that  human  govern- 
ments were  amenable  to  no  natural  Law  of  God,  but 
subject  only  to  the  Caprice  of  Magistrate  or  Elector,  — 
I  have  felt  a  profound  sense  of  my  responsibility  to 
YOU  as  a  teacher  of  Religion,  So  I  have  preached 
many  Political  Sermons,  examining  the  special  Meas- 
ures proposed,  exposing  the  Principle  they  rested 
on,  and  the  Consequences  they  must  produce,  and 
applying  the  lessons  of  experience,  the  laws  of  human 
nature,  the  great  doctrines  of  Absolute  Religion  to 
the  special  conduct  of  the  American  People.  No 
doubt,  I  have  often  wounded  the  feelings  of  many  of 
YOU.  Pardon  me,  my  friends  !  if  I  live  long  I  doubt 
not  I  shall  do  so  again  and  again.  You  never  made 
me  your  minister  to  flatter,  or  merely  to  please,  but 
to  instruct  and  serve. 

Treating  of  politics,  I  must  speak  of  the  conspic- 
uous men  engaged  therein,  when  they  come  to  die, 
for  such  are  the  idols  of  their  respective  parties.  In 
America  there  are  few  objects  of  conventional  respect 
—  no  permanent  classes  who  are  born  to  be  rever- 
enced ;  and  as  men  love  to  look  up  and  do  homage  to 
what  seems  superior,  a  man  of  vulgar  greatness,  who 
has  more  of  the  sort  of  talent  all  have  much  of,  is 
sure  to  become  an  idol  if  he  will  but  serve  the 
passions  of  his  worshippers :  so  with  us,  a  great  man 
of  that  stamp  has  a  more  irresponsible  power  than 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  133 

elsewhere  among  civilized  men  ;  for  he  takes  the  place 
of  king,  noble  and  priest,  and  controls  the  public 
virtue  more.  The  natural  function  of  a  great  man 
is  to  help  the  little  ones  :  by  this  test  I  have  endeav- 
ored to  try  such  as  I  must  needs  speak  of  Not 
responsible  for  their  vice  or  virtue,  I  have  sought  to 
represent  them  exactly  as  I  found  them,  and  that, 
too,  without  regard  to  the  opinion  of  menj  who  only 
looked  up  and  worshipped,  not  asking  what.  If  I 
were  an  assayer  of  metals,  I  should  feel  bound  to 
declare  the  character  of  the  specimens  brought  before 
me,  whether  lead  or  silver ;  shall  I  be  less  faithful  in 
my  survey  of  a  great  man,  ''  more  precious  than  the 
fine  gold  of  Ophir?"  I  am  no  flatterer,  nor  public 
liar-general ;  when  such  a  one  is  wanted  he  is  easily 
found,  and  may  be  had  cheap ;  and  I  cannot  treat 
great  men  like  great  babies.  So,  when  I  preached  on 
Mr.  Adams,  who  had  done  the  cause  of  Freedom  such 
great  service,  on  General  Taylor  and  Mr.  "Webster, 
I  aimed  to  paint  them  exactly  as  they  were,  that  their 
Virtues  might  teach  us,  and  their  Vices  warn.  Still 
further  to  promote  the  higher  education  of  the  people, 
and  correct  an  idolatry  as  fatal  as  it  is  stupid,  as  dan- 
gerous to  the  public  as  it  is  immediately  profitable  to 
wily  rhetoricians,  I  haA^e  prepared  lectures  on  four 
great  famous  Americans  —  Franklin,  Washington, 
Adams,  and  Jefferson.  The  last,  however,  was  not 
delivered  when  ray  present  illness  laid  me  low.  I 
12 


134  THEODORE    PARKER's 

wished  to  daguerreotype  these  great,  noble  men,  and 
place  true  pictures  before  the  people. 

Perhaps  no  part  of  my  public  labors  has  been  con- 
demned with  more  noise  and  violence  than  this  at- 
tempt at  historic  truth.  Certainly  I  did  depart  from 
the  panegyrical  custom  of  political  and  clerical  eulo- 
gizers  of  the  famous  or  the  wealthy  dead ;  but  I  have 
confidence  enough  in  the  People  of  the  Northern 
States  to  believe  they  will  prefer  plain  truth  to  the 
most  rhetorical  lies. 

I  have  not  quite  disdained  to  turn  your  eyes  to 
little,  mean  men,  when  set  in  high  office,  that  you 
might  get  instruction  from  their  folly  or  wickedness. 
So,  when  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  City  was  noto- 
riously the  comrade  of  drunkards,  and  of  the  most 
infamous  of  humankind,  and  that  of  the  State  Avas 
celebrated  chiefly  for  i3ublic  and  private  lying,  and 
both  abused  their  office,  to  promote  their  own  little 
purposes  of  mischief  or  of  gain,  debauching  the  pub- 
lic virtue,  as  well  as  wasting  the  People's  money,  —  I 
did  not  fail  to  advertise  the  fact,  that  you  at  least 
might  learn  by  the  lesson  which  cost  the  public  so 
dear. 

G.  I  have  preached  against  War,  showing  its  enor- 
mous cost  in  money  and  men,  and  the  havoc  it 
makes  of  public  and  private  virtue.  A  national 
occasion  was  not  wanting ;  for,  obedient  to  the  whip 
of  the  Slave-power,  which  hag-rides  the  nation  still, 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER,  135 

the  American  Government — not  the  People,  nor  even 
Congress — plunged  us  into  a  wicked  contest  with 
Mexico,  she  clearly  in  the  right,  we  notoriously  in  the 
wrong.  I  have  often  spoken  against  war,  and  tried 
to  discourage  that  "  excessive  lust  for  land,"  that  ag- 
gressive and  invasive  Spirit,  which  is  characteristic 
of  both  the  American  and  British  People.  It  is  clear 
that  the  strongest  races  will  ultimately  supplant  the 
feebler,  and  take  their  place,  as  the  strong  grasses 
outroot  the  weak  from  the  farmer's  meadow.  I  com- 
plain not  of  this  just  Natural  Law,  which  indeed 
pervades  the  Universe  ;  but  the  work  need  not  be 
done  by  violence,  nor  any  form  of  wrong.  So  I  have 
preached  against  i\\Q  Jillibustering  of  America,  and  the 
not  less  wicked  diplomatizing  and  soldiering  by  which 
our  parent  across  the  sea  accomplishes  the  same 
thing,  though  with  even  more  harshness  and  cruelty. 
Yet  I  have  not  preached  the  doctrine  of  the  Non- 
Resistants,  who  never  allow  an  individual  to  repel 
wrong  by  material  violence ;  nor  that  of  the  Ultra- 
Peace  men,  who  deny  a  nation's  right  to  stave  off  an 
invader's  wickedness  with  the  People's  bloody  hand. 
The  Wrathful  Emotions  are  also  an  integral  part  of 
Humanity,  and  with  both  nations  and  individuals 
have  an  indispensable  function  to  perform,  that  of 
self-defence,  which,  in  the  present  state  of  civiliza- 
tion, must  sometimes  be  with  violence,  even  with 
shedding   aggressive   blood.     It  is  against  needless 


136  THEODORE   PARKER's 

and  "wicked  wars — 'the  vast  majority  are  sucli  — 
that  I  Ikivu  preached ;  against  the  abuse  ambitious 
rulers  make  of  the  soldier's  trained  art  to  kill,  and  of 
the  wrathful,  defensive  instincts  of  the  multitude. 
In  this  age,  I  think  the  People  do  not  make  war 
against  the  peaceful  People  of  another  land ;  nay,  in 
New  England,  the  most  democratic  country,  we  have 
too  much  neglected  the  military  art,  I  fear, — a  mistake 
we  may  bitterly  regret  in  that  strife  between  the 
Southern  Habit  of  Despotism,  and  the  Northern  Prin- 
ciple of  Democracy,  which  any  day  may  take  the  form 
of  civil  war,  and  one  day  must.  For  America  will 
not  always  attempt  to  carry  a  pitcher  of  poison  on 
her  left  shoulder,  and  one  of  pure  water  on  her  right ; 
one  or  the  other  must  soon  go  to  the  ground. 

7.  I  have  spoken  against  Slavery  more  than  any 
concrete  wrong,  because  it  is  the  greatest  of  all,  "  the 
sum  of  all  villanies,"  and  the  most  popular,  the  wan- 
ton darling  of  the  Government.  I  became  acquainted 
with  it  in  my  early  childhood,  and  learned  to  hate  it 
even  then,  when,  though  I  might  not  comprehend 
the  injustice  of  the  principle,  I  could  yet  feel  the 
cruelty  of  the  fact.  I  began  to  preach  against  it 
early,  but  used  the  greatest  circumspection,  for  I 
knew  the  vulgar  prejudice  in  favor  of  all  successful 
tyranny,  and  wished  my  few  hearers  thoroughly  to 
accept  the  principle  of  Justice,  and  apply  it  to  this 
as  to  all  wrongs.    But  even  in  the  little  Meeting-House 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTEK.  137 

at  West  Roxbury,  though  some  of  the  audience  re- 
quired no  teaching  in  this  matter,  the  very  mention  of 
American  Slavery  as  wicked  at  first  offended  all  my 
hearers  who  had  any  connection  with  the  "  Demo- 
cratic "  Party.  Some  said  they  could  see  no  odds 
between  claiming  freedom  for  a  negro  slave,  and 
"stealing  one  of  our  oxen,"  the  right  to  own  cattle  in- 
cluding the  right  to  own  men ;  they  thought  Slavery 
could  ride  behind  them  on  the  same  pillion  with  "  De- 
mocracy," according  to  the  custom  of  their  masters. 
But,  as  little  by  little  I  developed  the  principle  of 
true  Democracy,  showing  its  root  in  that  Love  of  your 
Neighbor  as  yourself,  which  Jesus  both  taught  and 
lived,  and  of  that  Eternal  Justice  which  comes  even 
to  savage  bosoms,  and  showed  how  repugnant  slavery 
is  to  both,  —  gradually  all  the  more  reflective  and 
humane  drew  over  to  the  side  of  Freedom  ;  and  they 
who  at  first  turned  their  faces  to  the  floor  of  their 
pews  when  I  announced  Slavery  as  the  theme  for 
that  day's  sermon,  ere  many  years  turned  on  me  eyes 
flashing  with  indignation  against  wrong,  when  I  told 
the  tale  of  our  national  wickedness ;  they  have 
since  given  me  the  heartiest  sympathy  in  my  humble 
efforts  to  moralize  the  opinions  and  practice  of  the 
People. 

My  Feiends,— Since  I  have  been  your  minister,  I 
have  preached  much  on  this  dreadful  sin  of  the  na- 
tion, which  now  threatens  to  be   also  its  ruin ;  for, 
12^ 


138  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

while  in  my  youth  Slavery  was  admitted  to  be  an 
Evil,  commercially  profitable,  but  morally  wrong,  an 
exceptional  measure,  which  only  the  necessity  of 
habit  might  excuse,  but  which  nothing  could  justify, — 
of  late  years  it  is  declared  a  "  Moral  good,"  "  the  least 
objectionable  form  of  labor,"  fit  for  Xorthern  Whites 
not  less  than  African  Negroes,  one  of  those  guide- 
board  instances  which  indicate  the  highway  of  na- 
tional welfare.  For  some  years  Slavery  has  been  the 
actual  First  Principle  of  each  Federal  Administration ; 
to  this  all  interests  must  bend,  all  customs  and  statutes 
conform,  and  the  nation's  two  great  documents,  con- 
taining our  programme  of  political  Principles  and  of 
political  Purposes,  must  be  repudiated  and  practically 
annulled :  the  Supreme  Court  has  become  only  the 
Jesuitical  Propaganda  of  Slavery. 

For  some  years,  while  busied  with  theological  mat- 
ters, and  with  laying  the  metaphysic  foundation  of 
my  own  scheme,  I  took  no  public  part  in  the  anti- 
slavery  movements  outside  of  my  own  little  village. 
But  when  I  became  your  minister  and  had  a  wider 
field  to  till,  when  the  ambition  of  the  Slave  Power  be- 
came more  insolent  by  what  it  fed  upon,  and  the  North 
still  tamer  and  more  servile  under  the  bridle  and  the 
whip  of  such  as  were  horsed  thereon,  a  different  duty 
seemed  quite  clear  to  mo.  I  have  seldom  entered 
your  pulpit  without  remembering  that  you  and  I  lived 
in  a  land  whose  Church-members  arc  not  more  numer- 


EXPEEIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  139 

ous  than  its  Slaves,  as  many  "  communing  with  God  " 
by  bread  and  wine,  so  many  communing  with  Man 
by  chains  and  whips ;  and  that  not  only  the  State, 
Press,  and  Market,  but  also  the  Church  takes  a  "  South- 
side  view  of  Slavery,"  as  indeed  she  does  of  each 
other  wickedness  presently  popular,  and  "  of  good 
report!"  Since  1845,  I  have  preached  against  all 
the  great  invasive  measures  of  the  Slave  Power,  ex- 
posing their  Motive,  the  First  Principle  they  refer  to, 
and  showing  that  they  are  utterly  hostile  to  that 
Democracy  which  is  Justice  ;  and  all  tend  to  establish 
a  Despotism,  which  at  first  may  be  industrial  and 
many-headed,  as  now  in  Louisiana,  but  next  must  be 
single-headed  and  military,  as  already  in  France,  and 
finally  must  lead  to  national  ruin,  as  in  so  many  coun- 
tries of  the  old  world. 

In  due  time  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  came  up  from 
seed  which  wicked  men  had  sown  and  harrowed  into 
the  Northern  soil ;  Boston  fired  her  hundred  cannons 
with  delight,  and  they  awoke  the  ministers,  sitting- 
drowsy  in  their  Churches  of  Commerce,  mid  all  the 
pavements  of  the  North,  who  thought  an  angel  had 
spoke  to  them.  Then  I  preached  against  Slavery  as 
never  before,  and  defied  the  impudent  statute,  whereto 
you  happily  said  Amen  by  the  first  clapping  of  hands 
which  for  years  had  welcomed  a  sermon  in  Boston ; 
how  could  you  help  the  natural  indecorum  ?  When, 
roused  by  these  jubilant  guns,  one  minister,  so  gener- 


140  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

Oils  and  self-devoted,  too,  in  many  a  noble  Avork, 
called  on  liis  parishioners  to  enforce  that  wicked  act, 
which  meant  to  kidnap  mine,  and  declared  that  if  a 
fugitive  sought  shelter  with  him  he  would  drive  him 
away  from  his  own  door ;  when  another  uttered  words 
more  notorious,  and  yet  more  flagrant  with  avaricious 
inhumanity,  which  I  care  not  now  to  repeat  again; 
and  when  the  cry,  ''  No  Higher  Law  !  "  went  down 
from  the  Market,  and,  intoned  by  the  doctorial  leaders 
of  the  sects,  rang  through  so  many  Commercial 
Churches  throughout  the  Northern  land,  —  I  did  not 
dare  refuse  to  proclaim  the  monstrous  fact  as  one  of 
the  unavoidable  effects  of  Slavery,  whose  evil  seed 
must  bear  fruit  after  its  kind,  and  to  gibbet  the  wrong 
before  the  eyes  of  the  People,  to  whom  I  appealed 
for  common  Justice  and  common  Humanity.  When 
two  men,  holding  mean  offices  under  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, one  of  them  not  fit  by  nature  to  do  a  cruel 
deed,  actually  stole  and  kidnapped  two  innocent  in- 
habitants out  from  your  city  of  Franklin,  and  Hancock, 
and  Adams,  and  attempted,  with  their  unclean,  raven- 
ous jaws,  to  seize  yet  others,  and  rend  the  manhood 
out  of  them,  —  I  preached  against  these  Jackals  of 
Slavery  and  their  unlmman  work ;  and  have  now  only 
to  lament  that  my  powers  of  thought  and  speech 
were  no  more  adequate  fitly  to  expose  the  dark 
infamy  of  that  foul  deed,  against  which  I  asked 
alike  the  People's  Justice  and  their  Wrath ;  I  knew 


EXPEEIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  141 

I  should  not  ask  in  vain.  And  when  a  drunken  Bully 
from  South  Carolina,  in  Congress,  fitly  representing 
the  First  Principle,  if  not  the  first  persons  of  his 
State, — 'Where  none  can  serve  in  even  the  Lower 
House  of  Assembly,  "  unless  he  be  seized  in  his  own 
right  of  ten  Negro  Slaves," — made  his  assault,  not 
less  cowardly  than  brutal,  on  our  noble  Senator, 
wounding  him  with  worse  than  death,  and  while  the 
United  States  Attorney  sought  "  to  make  murder  safe 
and  easy  in  the  Capital,"  not  dreaming  it  would  one 
day,  unpunished,  reach  his  own  heart, — -I  spoke  of  that 
matter,  and  showed  it  was  the  cowards  of  Massa- 
chusetts who  drew  the  blow  on  her  faithful  champion, 
and  that  no  "  anodyne  "  could  make  them  less  than 
glad  that  it  was  struck  ! 

But  why  speak  more  of  those  sad  days?  Others 
may  come  with  sterner  face,  not  black,  but  red ! 
However,  a  blessed  change  in  public  opinion  now 
goes  calmly  on  in  Massachusetts,  in  New  England, 
and  all  the  North,  spite  of  the  sophistry  and  cunning 
of  ambitious  men  smit  with  the  presidential  fever. 
The  death  of  a  dozen  leading  anti-slavery  men  to-day 
would  not  much  retard  it,  for  the  ground  is  full  of 
such  ! 

8.  But  I  have  preached  against  the  Errors  of 
the  Ecclesiastic  Theology  more  than  upon  any  other 
form  of  wrong,  for  they  are  the  most  fatal  mischiefs 
in  the  land.     The  theological  notion  of  God,  Man,  and 


142  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

the  Relation  between  them,  seems  to  me  the  greatest 
speculative  eiTor  Mankind  has  fallen  into.  Its 
gloomy  consequences  appear:  —  Christendom  takes 
the  Bible  for  God's  word,  His  last  word ;  nothing 
new  or  different  can  ever  be  expected  from  the 
Source  of  all  Truth,  all  Justice,  and  all  Love ;  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  will  give  no  added  light  or 
heat  on  the  cold  darkness  of  the  human  world. 
From  portions  of  this  ''  infallible  revelation,"  the 
Roman  church  logically  derives  its  despotic  and 
hideous  claim  to  bind  and  loose  on  earth,  to  honor 
dead  men  with  sainthood,  or  to  rack  and  burn  with 
all  the  engines  mechanic  fancy  can  invent,  or  priestly 
cruolt}^  apply ;  and  hereafter  to  bless  eternally,  or 
else  forever  damn.  Ilence,  both  Protestant  and 
Catholic  logically  derive  their  imperfect,  wrathful 
Deity,  who  creates  men  to  torment  them  in  an 
endless  hell,  "  paved  with  the  skulls  of  infants  not  a 
span  long,"  whereinto  the  vast  majority  of  men  are, 
by  the  million,  trodden  down  for  everlasting  agony, 
at  which  the  Elect  continually  rejoice.  Hence,  they 
derive  their  Devil,  absolutely  evil,  that  Ugly  Wolf 
whom  God  lets  loose  into  liis  fold  of  lambs;  hence, 
their  Total  Depravity,  and  many  another  dreadful 
doctrine  which  now  the  best  of  men  blind  their 
brothers'  eyes  withal,  and  teach  their  children  to 
distrust  the  Infinite  Perfection,  which  is  Nature's 
God,  dear  Father  and  Mother  to  all  that  is.     Ilence, 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  143 

clerical  skeptics  learn  to  deny  the  validity  of  their 
own  superior  faculties,  and  spin  out  the  coljwebs  of 
sophistry,  wherewith  they  surround  the  field  of 
religion,  and  catch  therein  unwary  men.  Hence,  the 
Jews,  the  Mohammedans,  the  Mormons,  draw  their 
idea  of  woman,  and  their  right  to  substitute  such 
gross  conjunctions  for  the  natural  marriage  of  one  to 
one.  There  the  slaveholder  finds  the  chief  argument 
for  his  ownership  of  men,  and  in  Africa  or  New 
England,  kidnaps  the  weak,  his  mouth  drooling  with 
texts  from  ''  the  authentic  Word  of  God  ;  "  nay,  there 
the  rhetorician  finds  reason  for  shooting  an  innocent 
man  who  but  righteously  seeks  that  freedom  which 
Nature  declares  the  common  birthright  of  mankind. 
It  has  grieved  me  tenderly  to  see  all  Christendom 
make  the  Bible  its  Fetish,  and  so  lose  the  priceless 
value  of  that  free  religious  spirit,  which,  communing 
at  first  hand  with  God;  wrote  its  grand  pages,  or 
poured  out  its  magnificent  beatitudes. 

Christendom  contains  the  most  intellectual  nations 
of  the  earth,  all  of  them  belonging  to  the  dominant 
Caucasian  race,  and  most  of  them  occupying  regions 
very  friendly  to  the  development  of  the  highest  facul- 
ties of  man.  Theirs  too  is  the  superior  machinery  of 
civilization,  political,  ecclesiastical,  domestic,  social. 
Nowhere  on  earth  does  the  clerical  class  so  connect 
itself  with  the  innermost  of  man.  Christendom  is  the 
bold  leader  in  all  intellectual  affairs  —  arts  of  peace 


144  THEODORE    PARKER's 

and  war,  science,  literature,  skill  to  organize  and 
administer  mankind.  But  jet  the  Christian  has  no 
moral  superiority  over  the  Jews,  the  ]\Iohammedans, 
the  Brahmins,  the  Buddhists,  at  all  commensurate 
with  this  intellectual  power.  In  the  sum  of  private 
and  public  virtues,  the  Turk  is  before  the  Christian 
Greek.  For  fifteen  hundred  years  the  Jews,  a  nation 
scattered  and  peeled,  and  exposed  to  most  degrading 
influences,  in  true  religion  have  been  above  the 
Christians !  In  temperance,  chastity,  honesty,  jus- 
tice, mercy,  are  the  leading  nations  of  Christendom 
before  the  South-Asiatics,  the  Chinese,  the  islanders 
at  Japan  ?  Perhaps  so  —  but  have  these  '■'■  Christians  " 
a  moral  superiority  over  those  ''  heathens  "  eqiuil  to 
their  mental  superiority  ?  It  is  notorious  they  have 
not.  Why  is  this  so,  when  the  Christians  worship  a 
man  whose  religion  was  Love  to  God  and  Love  to 
men,  and  who  would  admit  to  Heaven  only  for  right- 
eousness, and  send  to  Hell  only  for  lack  of  it  ?  Be- 
cause they  WORSHIP  him,  reject  the  natural  goodness 
he  relied  upon,  and  trust  in  the  ''  blood  of  Christ 
which  maketh  free  from  all  sin."  It  is  this  false 
theology,  with  its  vicarious  atonement,  salvation 
without  morality  or  piety,  only  by  belief  in  absurd 
doctrines,  which  has  bewitched  the  leading  nations  of 
the  earth  into  such  practical  mischief  A  false  Idea 
has  controlled  the  strongest  spiritual  faculty,  leading 
men  to  trust  in  ''  imputed  righteousness,"  and  under- 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  145 

value  personal  virtue.  Self-denying  missionaries 
visit  many  a  far-off  land  ''  to  bring  the  heathens  to 
Christ,"  Small  good  comes  of  it ;  but  did  they  teach 
industry,  thrift,  letters,  honesty,  temperance,  justice, 
mercy,  with  rational  ideas  of  God  and  Man,  what  a 
conversion  there  Avould  be  of  the  Gentiles  !  Two 
and  thirty  thousand  Christian  ministers  are  there 
in  the  United  States,  all  ''  consecrated  to  Christ ; " 
many  of  them  are  able  men,  earnest  and  devoted,  but, 
their  eyes  hood-winked,  and  their  hands  chained  by 
their  theology,  what  do  they  bring  to  pass  ?  They 
scarce  lessen  any  vice  of  the  State,  the  Press,  or 
the  Market.  They  are  to  "  save  souls  from  the  wrath 
of  God." 

I  have  preached  against  the  Fundamental  Errors 
of  this  well-compacted  theologic  scheme,  showing 
the  consequences  which  follow  thence,  and  seldom 
entered  your  pulpit  without  remembering  Slavery, 
the  great  sin  of  America,  and  these  theological  errors, 
the  sacramental  mistake  of  Christendom.  But  I 
have  never  forgotten  the  great  Truths  this  theology 
contains,  invaluable  to  the  Intellect,  the  Conscience, 
the  Heart  and  Soul.  I  have  tried  to  preserve  them 
all,  with  each  good  institution  which  the  Church, 
floating  over  the  ruins  of  an  elder  world,  has  borne 
across  that  deluge,  and  set  down  for  us  where  the 
Dove  of  Peace  has  found  rest  for  the  sole  of  her  foot, 
and  gathered  her  olive-branch  to  show  that  those 
13 


14G  TJiEODoijE  Parker's 

devouring-  waters  are  dried  up  from  the  face  of  the 
cartli.  To  nio  tlie  name  of  Christianity  is  most 
exceeding  dear,  significant  of  so  great  a  man,  and  of 
such  natural  Emotions,  Ideas  and  Actions  as  arc  of 
priceless  value  to  mankind.  I  know  Avell  the  errors, 
also,  of  the  doubters  and  deniers,  who  in  all  ages 
have  Avaged  war  against  the  superstitious  theology 
of  their  times,  and  pulled  down  what  they  could  not 
replace  with  better.  I  have  not  sat  in  the  seat  of 
tlie  scornful ;  and  while  I  warned  men  against  the 
snare  of  the  priest,  I  would  not  suffer  them  to  fall 
into  the  mocker's  pit,  I  have  taken  exquisite  delight 
in  the  grand  words  of  the  Bible,  putting  it  before  all 
other  sacred  literature  of  the  whole  ancient  world ; 
to  me  it  is  more  dear  when  I  regard  them  not  as  the 
miracles  of  God,  but  as  the  work  of  earnest  men,  who 
did  their  uttermost  with  holy  heart.  I  love  to  read 
the  great  Truths  of  Religion  set  forth  in  the  magnifi- 
cent poetry  of  Psalmist  and  Prophet,  and  the  humane 
lessons  of  the  Hebrew  peasant,  who  summed  up  the 
Prophets  and  the  Law  in  one  word  of  Love,  and  set 
forth  man's  daily  duties  in  such  true  and  simple 
speech  !  As  a  Master,  the  Bible  were  a  tyrant ;  as 
a  Help,  I  have  not  time  to  tell  its  worth ;  nor  has  a 
sick  man  speech  for  that,  ]ior  need  I  now,  for  my 
public  and  private  teachings  sufficiently  abound  in 
such  attempts.  But  yet,  to  me  the  great  men  of  the 
Bible  are  worth  more  than  all  their  Avords :  he  that 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  147 

was  greater  than  the  Temple,  whose  soul  burst  out 
its  walls,  is  also  greater  than  tlie  Testament,  but  yet 
no  Master  over  you  or  me,  however  humble  men  ! 

In  theological  matters,  my  preaching  has  been 
positive,  much  more  than  negative,  controversial  only 
to  create ;  I  have  tried  to  set  forth  the  Truths  of 
Natural  Religion,  gathered  from  the  Avorld  of  matter 
and  of  spirit ;  I  rely  on  these  great  Ideas  as  the  chief 
means  for  exciting  the  religious  Feelings,  and  pro- 
moting religious  Deeds  ;  I  have  destroyed  only  what 
seemed  pernicious,  and  that  I  might  build  a  better 
structure  in  its  place. 

Of  late  years  a  new  form  of  Atheism  —  the  ideal, 
once  thought  impossible  —  has  sprung  up  ;  perhaps 
Germany  is  its  birth-place,  though  France  and  Eng- 
land seem  equally  its  home.  It  has  its  representa- 
tives in  America.  Besides,  the  Pantheists  tell  us  of 
their  God,  who  is  but  the  sum  total  of  the  existing 
universe  of  matter  and  of  mind,  immanent  in  each, 
but  transcending  neither,  imprisoned  in  the  two ; 
blind,  planless,  purposeless,  without  Consciousness, 
or  Will,  or  Love ;  dependent  upon  the  shifting  phe- 
nomena of  finite  matter  and  of  finite  mind,  finite  it- 
self; a  continual  Becoming  this  or  that,  not  absolute 
Being,  self-subsistent  and  eternally  the  same  perfec- 
tion :  their  God  is  only  Law,  the  constant  mode  of 
operation  of  objective  and  unconscious  force;  yet  is  it 
better   than   the    churchman's   God,   who  is   Caprice 


148  TiiEODOKE  Parker's 

aloiiG,  subjective,  arbitrary,  inconstant,  and  with 
more  bate  than  love.  I  have  attempted  to  deal  with 
the  problem  of  the  Pantheist  and  the  Atheist,  treating 
both  as  any  other  theological  opponents  :  I  have  not 
insulted  them  with  harsh  names,  nor  found  occasion 
to  impute  dishonorable  motives  to  such  as  deny  wdiat 
is  dearer  than  life  to  me  ;  nor  attempted  to  silence 
them  with  texts  from  sacred  books  ;  nor  to  entangle 
them  in  ecclesiastic  or  metaphysic  sophistries  ;  nor  to 
scare  with  panic  terrors,  easily  excited  in  an  atheistic 
or  a  Christian's  heart.  I  have  simply  referred  them  to 
the  primal  Instincts  of  Human  Xature,  and  their 
Spontaneous  Intuition  of  the  Divine,  the  Just,  and  the 
Immortal ;  then,  to  what  science  gathered  from  the 
"World  of  Matter,  and  the  objective  History  of  Man  in 
his  progressive  development  of  individual  and  of 
social  power.  I  have  shown  the  causes  "which  lead 
to  honest  bigotry  within  the  Christian  Church,  and  to 
honest  atheism  without ;  I  hope  I  have  done  injustice 
neither  to  this  nor  that.  But  it  was  a  significant  fact 
I  could  not  fail  to  make  public,  that,  while  the  chief 
Doctors  of  Commercial  Divinity  in  the  great  Ameri- 
can trading  to\vns,  and  their  subservient  colleges, 
denied  the  Higher  Law,  and  with  their  Bibles  laid 
Humanity  flat  before  the  kidnappers  in  Cincinnati, 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston,  the  so-called 
Atheists  and  Pantheists  o'er  all  the  Northern  land 
revered  the  instinctive  Justice  of  the  soul,  and  said, 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  149 

'^  Thou    slialt   not    steal,    nor   lie,   Thou    shalt  do    no 
wrong  ;  't  is  Nature  self  forbids  !  " 


Preaching  such  doctrines  in  a  place  so  public,  and 
applying  them  to  life,  I  am  not  surprised  at  the  hos- 
tility I  have  met  with  from  tlie  various  sects.  In  no 
country  would  it  have  been  less,  or  tempered  more 
sweetly ;  no,  nor  in  any  age ;  for  certainly  I  have 
departed  from  the  Fundamental  Principle  of  the 
Catholics  and  the  Protestants,  denied  the  fact  of  a 
miraculous  Revelation,  given  exclusively  to  Jews 
and  Christians,  denied  the  claim  to  supernatural 
authority,  and  utterly  broke  with  that  Vicariousness 
which  puts  an  alleged  revelation  in  place  of  common 
sense,  and  the  blood  of  a  crucified  Jew  instead  of  ex- 
cellence of  character.  In  the  least  historic  of  the  New 
Testament  Gospels  it  is  related  that  Jesus  miraculously 
removed  the  congenital  blindness  of  an  adult  man, 
and  because  he  made  known  the  fact  that  his  eyes 
were  thus  opened,  and  told  the  cause,  the  Pharisees 
cast  him  out  of  their  synagogue.  What  this  mythic 
story  relates  as  an  exceptional  Measure  of  the 
Pharisees,  seems  to  have  founded  a  Universal  Prin- 
ciple of  the  Christian  Church,  which  cannot  bear  the 
presence  of  a  man  who,  divinely  sent,  has  washed  in 
the  pool  of  Siloam,  and  returned  seeing  and  telling 
why. 


150  THEODORE   PARKEIl's 

I  knew  at  the  beginning  what  I  must  expect :  that 
at  first  men  younger  than  I,  who  had  not  learned  over 
much,  would  taunt  me  with  my  youth ;  that  others, 
not  scholarly,  would  charge  me  with  lack  of  learning 
competent  for  my  task ;  and  cautious  old  men,  who 
did  not  find  it  convenient  to  deny  my  facts,  or  answer 
my  arguments,  would  cry  out,  ''  this  young  man  must 
be  put  down !  "  and  set  their  venerable  popular  feet 
in  that  direction.  Of  course  I  have  made  many  mis- 
takes, and  could  not  expect  a  theologic  opponent, 
and  still  less  a  personal  enemy,  to  point  them  out 
with  much  delicacy,  or  attempt  to  spare  my  feelings ; 
theological  warfare  is  not  gentler  than  political  or 
military ;  even  small  revolutions  are  not  mixed  Avith 
rose-water.  The  amount  of  honest  misunderstand- 
ing, of  wilful  misrepresenting,  of  lying,  and  of  malig- 
nant abuse,  has  not  astonished  me  ;  after  the  first  few 
months  it  did  not  grieve  me ;  human  nature  has  a 
wide  margin  of  oscillation,  and  accommodates  itself  to 
both  torrid  and  frigid  zones.  But  I  have  sometimes 
been  a  little  surprised  at  the  boldness  of  some  of  my 
critics,  whose  mistakes  proved  their  courage  extended 
beyond  their  information.  An  acquaintance  with  the 
historic  development  of  mankind,  a  knowledge  of 
Greek  and  Hebrew,  familiarity  with  the  metaphysic 
thought  of  the  human  race,  is  certainly  no  moral 
merit ;  but  in  theologic  discussions  it  is  a  convenience 
which  some  of  my  opponents  have  not  always  paid 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  151 

quite  sufficient  respect  to,  though  they  were  not 
thereby  hindered  from  passing  swift  judgment.  Crit- 
icism is  the  easiest  of  all  arts,  or  the  most  difficult 
of  all. 

It  did  not  surprise  me  that  other  ministers,  Uni- 
tarian and  Trinitarian,  should  refuse  to  serve  with 
me  on  the  committee  of  a  college  or  a  school,  to 
attend  the  same  funeral  or  wedding,  to  sit  on  the  same 
bench  at  a  public  meeting,  to  remain  in  the  same 
public  apartment,  and  trade  at  the  same  bookstore, 
to  return  my  salutation  in  the  street,  or  reply  to  my 
letters ;  that  they  should  invent  and  spread  abroad 
falsehoods  intended  to  ruin  mo  :  but  I  confess  I  have 
sometimes  been  astonished  that  such  men  "  could  not 
see  any  sign  of  honesty,  of  love  of  truth,  of  philan- 
thropy, or  religion,"  in  my  writings  or  my  life,  but 
must  set  down  all  to  "  vanity  and  love  of  the  praises 
of  men."  But  "  it  is  fit  to  be  instructed,  even  by  an 
enemy."  Let  you  and  me  learn  from  ours  to  hate 
those  theological  doctrines  which  can  so  blind  the 
eyes  and  harden  the  hearts  of  earnest,  self-denying 
men ;  let  us  not  imitate  the  sophistry  and  bigotry  we 
may  have  suffered  from,  and  certainly  have  been  ex- 
posed to. 

I  have  found  most  friendly  recognition  where  I  did 
not  expect  it.  Men  with  adverse  theological  opinions 
have  testified  to  the  honest  piety  they  thought  they 
found  in  my  writings,  and  joined  with  me  in  various 
practical  works  of  humanity,  leaving  me  to  settle  the 


loJ  THEODORE    PARKEIi'.S 

abstract  (|iiesti()ns  of"  Divinity  with  the  Divine  liim- 
self.  Indeed,  I  never  found  it  necessary  to  agree 
Avitli  a  man's  theology  before  1  could  ride  in  his  omni- 
bus or  buy  his  quills.  No  two  Unitarian  ministers,  I 
think,  differ  more  in  their  theology  than  Rev.  James 
Freeman  Clarke  and  I,  but  for  twenty  years  there  has 
been  the  warmest  friendship  between  us ;  that  noble 
man  and  I  have  gone  hand  in  hand  to  many  of  the 
most  important  philanthropies  of  the  age ;  and  I 
think  he  will  not  be  offended  by  this  public  recog- 
jiition  of  our  aflfectional  intimacy.  I  could  say  similar 
things  of  other  men,  whom  I  have  not  named,  but 
might  thereby  scare  their  timid  reputation  from  its 
nest,  and  addle  their  hopes  of  future  usefulness. 

Besides,  I  have  found  kindly  and  generous  critics 
in  America,  and  still  more  in  England  and  Germany, 
who  did  me  perhaps  more  than  Justice,  while  they 
honestly  pointed  out  what  they  must  regard  as  my 
faults.  Though  I  have  been  Avritten  and  spoken 
against  more  than  any  American,  not  connected  with 
political  parties,  yet,  on  the  Avhole,  I  do  not  complain 
of  the  treatment  1  have  received  ;  all  I  asked  was  a 
hearing ;  that  has  been  abundantly  granted.  You 
opened  wide  doors,  my  ojjponents  rung  the  bell  all 
Saturday  night,  and  Sunday  morning  the  audience 
was  tliere.  I  think  no  other  country  would  allow  me 
such  liberty  of  speech;  I  fear  not  even  England, 
\vhich  has  yet  so  generously  welcomed  every  fj-ee 
thought. 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  153 

Of  late  years  the  hatred  against  me  seems  to  have 
abated  somewhat ;  old  enemies  relaxed  their  brows  a 
little,  and  took  back,  or  else  denied,  their  former 
calumnies ;  nay,  had  kind  w^ords  and  kind  deeds  for 
me  and  mine.  "  Let  bygones  be  bygones,"  is  a  good 
old  rule. 

"  The  fondest,  the  fairest,  the  truest  that  met. 
Have  still  found  the  need  to  forgive  and  forget." 

I  think  foAv  men  in  America  have  found  sympathy  in 
trouble  from  a  greater  variety  of  persons  than  I, 
in  my  present  disappointment  and  illness,  from  men 
and  women  of  all  manner  of  ecclesiastical  connec- 
tions. I  could  not  always  thank  them  by  private 
letters,  but  I  need  not  say  how  grateful  their  kindly 
words  have  been,  for  —  I  may  as  well  confess  it — • 
after  all,  I  am  not  much  of  a  fighter ;  my  affections 
are  developed  far  better  than  my  intellect.  It  may 
be  news  to  the  public ;  to  you  it  is  but  too  well 
known. 

Yet,  let  it  not  surprise  you  that  in  some  quarters 
this  theologic  odium  continues  still,  and  shows  itself 
in  "  revival  meetings  "  by  public  prayers  that  God 
would  go  to  my  study,  and  confound  me  there  so  that 
I  could  not  write  my  sermon ;  or  meet  me  in  your 
pulpit,  and  put  a  hook  in  my  jaws  so  that  I  could 
not  speak ;  or  else  remove  me  out  of  the  world. 
Such    petitions,  finding   abundant   biblical   examjole, 


154  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

are  not  surprising  when  they  come  from  such  places, 
on  sucli  occasions,  and  from  men  whose  mind  and 
conscience  are  darkened  by  the  dreadful  theology  that 
still  haunts  many  such  places.  But  other  instances 
must  find  a  different  explanation.  Less  than  two 
years  ago,  the  Senior  class  in  the  Cambridge  Divinity 
School,  consisting,  I  think,  of  but  four  pupils,  invited 
me  to  deliver  the  customary  address  before  them 
and  the  public,  the  Sunday  before  their  graduation. 
The  Theological  Faculty,  consisting  of  three  Unita- 
rian Doctors  of  Divinity,  interposed  their  veto  and 
forbid  mo  from  speaking ;  such  a  prohibition,  I  think, 
had  never  been  made  before.  These  Doctors  were 
not  ignorant  men,  or  bigoted,  they  attend  no  "revival 
meetings,"  but,  s^Jeaking  intellectually,  they  belong 
among  the  most  enlightened  Scholars  in  America ; 
none  of  them  "  was  ever  accused  of  believing  too 
much ;  "  yet  they  saw  fit  to  olfer  me  the  greatest 
ecclesiastical,  academical  and  personal  insult  in  their 
professional  power,  in  the  most  public  manner,  and 
that,  too,  at  a  time  when  I  Avas  just  recovering  from 
severe  illness,  and  fluttering  'twixt  life  and  death, — 
the  scrutinizing  j^hysician  telling  me  the  chances 
were  equally  divided  between  the  two  ;  I  could 
only  stand  in  the  pulpit  to  preach  by  holding  on  to 
the  desk  with  one  hand  while  I  lifted  the  other  up. 
Othei's  miglit  have  expected  sucli  treatment  from 
these  men ;  I  confess,  my  friends,  that  I  did  not. 


EXPEKIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  155 

Since  my  present  illness  began,  some  of  my  theo- 
logical foes  have,  publicly  to  the  world,  and  privately 
to  me,  expressed  their  delight  that  I  am  not  likely 
to  trouble  them  much  longer ;  in  my  present  feeble- 
ness they  read  the  answer  to  their  prayers  for  my 
removal.  It  was  the  Psalmist's  petition,  "  Let  not 
mine  enemies  triumph  over  me  !  "  But  I  shall  utter 
none  such.  If  I  fall  and  die,  let  "■  mine  enemies  " 
rejoice  as  much  as  they  will  at  the  consequent 
thought  that  there  is  one  feeble  voice  the  less, 
rebuking  the  vice  of  the  Press,  the  State,  the 
Market,  and  the  Church,  to  speak  a  word  for  Truth, 
Freedom,  Justice,  and  Natural  Peligion ;  let  them  be 
glad  there  is  one  weak  arm  the  less  reaching  out 
help  to  the  poor,  the  drunken,  the  ignorant,  the 
harlot,  the  felon,  and  the  slave ;  let  them  thank  God 
for  the  premature  decrepitude  of  my  voice,  the 
silence  of  my  study,  where  worms  perchance  devour 
my  books,  more  dear  even  than  costly ;  let  them  find 
"  answer  to  our  prayers "  in  the  sorrow  of  my 
personal  friends  —  there  are  now  many  such,  —  in  the 
keen  distress  of  my  intimates,  and  the  agony  of  my 
wife  :  I  complain  nothing  thereat.  Every  tree  must 
bear  after  its  own  kind,  not  another,  and  their 
"  religion "  must  yield  such  fruits.  Let  them  ti'i- 
umph  in  these  results,  and  thank  their  God  that  he 
has  ^'  interposed,"  and  thus  granted  their  petition ;  it 
is  small  satisfaction  compared  with  what  they  hope 


156  TlIEODOIiE    PAliKER's 

for  in  tlie  next  life,  where,  so  their  theology  teaches, 
the  joy  of  the  Elect  in  Heaven  will  be  enhanced  by 
looking  down  into  Hell,  and  beholding  the  agony  of 
their  former  neighbors  and  friends,  husband  or  wife, 
nay,  their  own  children  also,  and  remembering  that 
such  suffering  is  endless,  "  and  the  smoke  of  their 
torment  ascendeth  up  forever  and  ever."  Let  them 
triumph  in  this ;  but  let  them  expect  no  other  or 
greater  result  to  follow  from  my  death.  For 
to  the  success  of  the  great  truths  I  have  taught,  it 
is  now  but  of  the  smallest  consequence  whether  I 
preach  in  Boston  and  all  the  Lyceums  of  the  North, 
or  my  body  crumbles  in  some  quiet,  nameless  grave. 
They  are  not  my  Truths  !  I  am  no  great  man  whom 
the  world  hinges  on  ;  nor  can  I  settle  the  fate  of  a 
single  doctrine  by  my  authority.  Humanit}'  is  rich 
in  personalities,  and  a  man  no  larger  than  I  will  not 
long  be  missed  in  the  wide  field  of  theology  and 
religion.  For  immediately  carrying  a  special  meas- 
ure, and  for  helping  this  or  that,  a  single  man  is 
sometimes  of  great  value  ;  the  death  of  the  general 
is  the  loss  of  the  battle,  perhaps  the  undoing  of  a 
State ;  but  after  a  great  Truth  of  Humanity  is  once 
set  agoing,  it  is  in  the  charge  of  Mankind,  through 
whom  it  first  came  from  God ;  it  cannot  perish  by 
any  man's  death.  Neither  State,  nor  Press,  nor 
]\[arket,  nor  Church,  can  ever  put  it  down ;  it  will 
drown  the  water  men  pour  on  it,  and  quench  their 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  157 

hostile  fire.  Cannot  the  Bible  teach  its  worshippers 
that  a  Grave  is  no  dungeon  to  shut  up  Truth  in ;  and 
that  Death,  who  slays  alike  the  Priest  and  the 
Prophet,  bows  his  head  before  her,  and  passes 
harmless  by?  To  stone  Stephen  did  not  save  the 
Church  of  the  Pharisees.  A  live  man  may  harm 
his  own  cause  ;  a  dead  one  cannot  defile  his  clean 
immortal  doctrines  with  unworthy  hands. 

In  these  tropic  waters  not  far  off,  in  time  of  strife, 
on  a  dark  night,  but  towards  morning,  an  English 
ship-of-war  once  drew  near  what  seemed  a  hostile  ves- 
sel under  sail ;  she  hailed  the  stranger,  who  answered 
not ;  then  hailed  again  ;  no  answer ;  then  fired  a  shot 
across  the  saucy  bows,  but  still  there  was  no  reply ; 
next  fired  at  her,  amidships,  but  got  not  a  word  in 
return.  Finally  the  man-of-war  cleared  for  action, 
began  battle  in  earnest,  serving  the  guns  with  British 
vigor,  but  found  no  return,  save  the  rattle  of  shot 
rebounding  and  falling  back  into  the  heedless  sea. 
Daylight  presently  came  with  tropic  suddenness,  and 
the  captain  found  he  spent  his  powder  in  battering  a 
great  rock  in  the  ocean !  So,  many  a  man  has  fought 
long  against  a  Truth  which  he  fancied  was  but  a  float- 
ing whim,  bound  to  yield  to  his  caprice ;  but,  at  last 
the  dawning  light  has  shown  him  it  was  no  passing 
ship,  of  timber  and  cordage  and  canvas,  driven  by 
the  wind  and  tossed  by  the  undulations  of  the  sea, 
but  a  SAIL-ROCK,  resting  on  the  foundations  of  the 
14 


l')S  THKODoijE  Parker's 

world,  and  aiiionable  neither  to  tlie  men-oi-\var  tliat 
sailed  in  the  wind,  nor  yet  to  the  undulation  of  the 
sea  Avhcrcon  they  came  and  went.  It  is  one  thing  to 
rejoice  at  the  sickness  and  death  of  a  short-lived  here- 
tic, but  it  is  another  and  a  little  different,  to  alter  the 
Constitution  of  the  Universe,  and  put  down  a  Fact  of 
spontaneous  Human  Consciousness,  which  also  is  a 
Truth  of  God. 


When  I  first  came  amongst  you,  and  lived  in  a  trad- 
ing town  where  a  great  variety  of  occupations  lay 
spread  out  before  me  all  the  time,  and  preached  to  such 
crowds  of  men  as  offered  a  wide  diversity  of  nature, 
character  and  conduct,  I  found  not  only  an  opportu- 
nity to  work,  but  also  to  learn  and  grow.  You  say  I 
have  taught  you  much  ;  I  hope  it  is  so  ;  but  you  have 
been  a  large  part  of  your  own  schooling,  for  I  have 
also  learned  much  from  you  ;  the  audience  has  always 
furnished  a  large  part  of  the  sermon  and  the  prayer. 
I  have  received  much  direct  instruction,  and  that  in 
matters  of  deep  concern,  from  some  of  you,  by  hear- 
ing your  words  and  looking  at  your  lives  ;  the  indi- 
rect help  to  my  power  of  thought  and  speech,  I  fear 
you  would  hardly  credit  should  I  attempt  to  tell.  It 
is  enough  to  say  now,  that  amongst  you  I  have  found 
men  and  women,  often  in  quite  humble  stations,  who 
have  added  new  elements  of  both  strength  and  beauty 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  159 

to  my  notion  of  what  constitutes  a  "glorious  human 
creature,"  in  particular  excellences  their  Actual 
surpassing  my  Ideal.  I  have  been  a  learner  quite  as 
much  as  a  teacher ;  indeed,  out  of  nearly  a  thousand 
sermons  I  have  written,  I  think  there  are  not  five  and 
twenty  which  are  not  also  steps  in  my  own  develop- 
ment, studies  I  have  learned  by,  quite  as  much  as 
lessons  you  have  been  taught  with. 

To  me.  Human  Life  in  all  its  forms,  individual  and 
aggregate,  is  a  perpetual  wonder :  the  Flora  of  the 
earth  and  sea  is  full  of  beauty  and  of  mystery  which 
Science  seeks  to  understand ;  the  Fauna  of  land  and 
ocean  is  not  less  wonderful ;  the  World  which  holds 
them  both,  and  the  great  Universe  that  folds  it  in  on 
every  side,  are  still  more  wonderful,  complex  and 
attractive,  to  the  contemplating  mind.  But  the  Uni- 
verse of  Human  Life,  with  its  peculiar  worlds  of 
outer  sense  and  inner  soul,  the  particular  faunas  and 
floras  which  therein  find  a  home,  are  still  more  com- 
plex, wonderful  and  attractive ;  and  the  laws  which 
control  it  seem  to  me  more  amazing  than  the  Matlie- 
matic  Principles  that  explain  the  Celestial  Mechanics 
of  the  outward  world.  The  Cosmos  of  Matter  seems 
little  compared  to  this  Cosmos  of  immortal  and  pro- 
gressive Man  ;  it  is  my  continual  study,  discipline  and 
delight.  Oh,  that  some  young  genius  would  devise 
the  Novum  Organum  of  Humanity,  determine  the 
Principia  thereof,  and   witli  deeper  than  mathematic 


IGO  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

science,  write  out  the  Ibrmiilas  of  the  Human  Uni- 
verse, the  Celestial  Mechanics  of  JMankind. 

In  your  busy,  bustling-  town,  -with  its  queerly 
mingled,  heterogeneous  population,  and  its  great 
diversity  of  work,  I  soon  learned  to  see  the  Unity  of 
Human  Life  under  all  this  variety  of  Circumstances 
and  outward  condition.  It  is  easy  for  a  simple- 
hearted  man,  standing  on  a  central  Truth,  to  reduce 
them  all  to  one  common  denomination  of  Humanity, 
and  ascertain  the  relative  value  of  individuals  in  this 
Comparative  Morality.  The  Huckster,  with  a  basket, 
where  apples,  peanuts,  candy,  and  other  miscellaneous 
small  stores  are  huddled  together,  is  a  small  mer- 
chant ;  the  Merchant,  with  his  warehouse,  his  factory 
or  bank,  his  ships  on  many  a  sea,  is  a  great  huckster ; 
both  buy  to  sell,  and  sell  to  gain ;  the  odds  is  quanti- 
tative, not  in  kind,  but  bulk.  The  cunning  Lawyer, 
selling  his  legal  knowledge  and  forensic  skill  to  pro- 
mote a  client's  gainful  wickedness;  the  tricksy 
Harlot,  letting  out  her  person  to  a  stranger's  unholy 
lust ;  the  deceitful  Minister,  prostituting  liis  voice  and 
ecclesiastical  position  to  make  some  popular  sin 
appear  decent  and  Christian,  ''accordant  with  the 
revealed  Word  of  God,"  —  all  stand  in  the  same  col- 
umn of  my  religious  notation.  In  the  street  I  see 
them  all  pass  by,  each  walking  in  a  vain  show,  in  dif- 
ferent  directions,  but  all   consilient  to  the  same  end  ! 

So,  the  ambitious  vanities  of  life  all  seem  of  nearly 


EXPEEIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  161 

the  same  value  when  laid  side  by  side  on  this  table 
of  exchange.  The  Poetess,  i^roud  of  her  superiority 
over  other  ''  silly  women "  in  the  ''  vision  and  the 
faculty  divine,"  or  in  but  the  small  '^  accomplishment 
of  verse  ;"  the  Orator,  glorying  in  his  wondrous  art, 
longer  than  other  men  to  hold  the  uplooking  mul- 
titude with  his  thread  of  speech,  and  thereby  pour 
his  thought  or  will  into  the  narrow  vials  of  so  many 
minds  ;  and  the  Scavenger,  who  boasts  that  he  ''  can 
sweep  round  a  lamp-post  better  than  any  man  in  the 
gang," — ^all  seem  alike  to  an  eye  that  looks  beneath 
and  above  the  rippling  tide  of  jDhenomenal  actions, 
learning  its  whither  and  its  whence,  and  knowing  the 
unseen  causes  which  control  this  many-billowed  sea 
of  life.  The  diamonds  of  many-skirted  Empress 
Eugenia  at  Versailles,  and  the  Attleborough  jewelry 
of  barefooted  Char-woman  Bridget  at  Cove  Place,  are 
symbols  of  the  same  significance,  and  probably  of  the 
same  value  to  their  respective  occupants.  The  man 
not  winged  with  talent,  whom  a  political  party  cranes 
up  to  some  official  eminence  he  could  not  reach  by  the 
most  assiduous  crawling,  and  the  dawdling  young 
woman,  who  can  make  neither  bread  to  eat  nor 
clothes  to  wear,  nor  yet  order  any  household  even  of 
only  two,  whom  an  idle  hand,  and  a  pinkish  cheek, 
and  a  lolling  tongue,  have  fastened  to  another,  but 
bearded  fool, —  these  seem  wonderfully  alike  to  me  ; 
and  I  say  to  both,  '^  May  God  Almighty  have  mercy 
14* 


IG'2  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

Oil  your  souls!"  So,  the  effort  after  nobleness  of  char- 
acter is  ever  the  same,  clad  in  whatever  dress ;  the 
black  washerwoman,  on  Negro  Hill,  as,  with  a  frowzy 
broom,  a  mop,  and  a  tub  or  two,  she  keeps  the  wolf 
away  from  her  unfathered  babies,  all  fugitives  from 
slavery,  and  thence  looks  up  to  that  dear  God  whom 
she  so  feels  within  her  heart  a  very  present  help  in 
her  hour  of  need,  which  is  her  every  hour, —  to  me 
seems  grand  as  Paul  preaching  on  Mars-hill  to  the 
Athenian  senators ;  nay,  not  less  glorious  than  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  on  his  mountain,  uttering  blessed  beat- 
itudes to  those  thousands  who  paused  in  their  pilgrim- 
age towards  Jerusalem,  to  look  and  listen  to  one 
greater  than  the  Temple,  and  destined  to  control 
men's  hearts  when  that  city,  compactly  built,  has  not 
stone  left  on  stone.  The  thoughtful  eye,  like  the 
artistic  hand,  invests  with  the  same  magnificence  the 
Hebrew  preachers  and  the  Negro  washerwoman,  bor- 
rowing the  outward  purple  from  the  glory  within. 
It  is  the  same  great  problem  of  duty  wdiich  is  to  be 
wrought  out  by  all  —  huckster,  merchant,  lawyer, 
harlot,  minister,  poetess,  orator,  Eugenia,  and  Bridget, 
unworthy  officer,  and  idle,  helpless  wife,  Dinah  on 
Negro  Hill,  Paul  at  the  Areopagus,  and  Jesus  on 
Mount  Tabor ;  and  it  is  not  of  such  future  conse- 
quence to  us  as  men  fancy,  whether  the  tools  of  our 
work  be  a  Basket  or  a  Warehouse,  a  Mop  or  a  Cross ; 
for  the  Divine  Justice  asks  the  same  question  of  each, 


EXPERIENX'E    AS    A    MINISTER.  163 

"  What  hast  thou  done  with  thy  gifts  and  opportuni- 
ties?" Feehng-  the  democracy  of  Mankind,  and 
preaching  it  in  many  a  form,  I  have  learned  to  esti- 
mate the  worth  of  men  by  the  QuaHty  of  their  Char- 
acter, and  the  Amount  of  their  Service  rendered  to 
mankind.  So,  of  each  I  ask  but  two  questions, 
"  What  are  you  ?  What  do  you  do  ?  ''  The  vohmtary 
beggar  in  rags,  and  the  voluntary  beggar  in  rufSes, 
alike  answer,  ''  Nought." 

In  my  preaching  I  have  used  jjlain,  simple  words, 
sometimes  making  what  I  could  not  find  ready,  and 
counted  nothing  unclean,  because  merely  common. 
In  philosophic  terms,  and  in  all  which  describes  the 
inner  consciousness,  our  Saxon  speech  is  rather  poor, 
and  so  I  have  been  compelled  to  gather  from  the 
Greek  or  Roman  stock  forms  of  expression  which  do 
not  grow  on  our  homely  and  familiar  tree,  and  hence, 
perhaps,  have  sometimes  scared  you  with  ''  words  of 
learned  length."  But  I  have  always  preferred  to  use, 
when  fit,  the  every-day  words  in  which  men  think 
and  talk,  scold,  make  love,  and  pray,  so  that  gener- 
ous-hearted Philosophy,  clad  in  a  common  dress,  might 
more  easily  become  familiar  to  plain-clad  men.  It  is 
with  customary  tools  that  we  work  easiest  and  best, 
especially  when  use  has  made  the  handles  smooth. 

Illustrations  I  have  drawn  from  most  familiar  things 
which  are  before  all  men's  eyes,  in  the    fields,  the 


1G4:  TMKODOKK    PARKER's 

streets,  the  shop,  tlie  kitchen,  parlor,  nursery  or 
school;  and  from  the  literature  best  known  to  all, — 
the  Bible,  the  newspapers,  the  transient  speech  of 
eminent  men,  the  talk  of  common  people  in  the 
streets,  from  popular  stories,  school-books  and  nur- 
sery rhymes.  Some  of  you  have  censured  me  for  this 
freedom  and  homeliness,  alike  in  illustration  and  in 
forms  of  speech,  desiring  ''more  elegant  and  sonorous 
language,"  "illustrations  derived  from  elevated  and 
conspicuous  objects,"  "from  dignified  i)ersonalities." 
A  good  man,  who  was  a  farmer  in  fair  weather  and  a 
shoemaker  in  foul,  could  not  bear  to  have  a  plough  or 
a  lap-stone  mentioned  in  my  sermon,  —  to  me  pictur- 
esque and  poetic  objects,  as  well  as  familiar,  —  but 
wanted  *' kings  and  knights,"  which  1  also  quickly 
pleased  him  with.  But  for  this  I  must  not  only  plead 
the  necessity  of  my  nature,  delighting  in  common 
things,  trees,  grass,  oxen,  and  stars,  moonlight  on  the 
Avater,  the  falling  rain,  the  ducks  and  hens  at  this 
moment  noisy  under  my  window,  the  gambols  and 
prattle  of  children,  and  the  common  Avork  of  black- 
smiths, carpenters,  Avhcelwrights,  painters,  hucksters 
and  traders  of  all  sorts ;  but  1  have  also  on  my  side 
the  example  of  all  the  great  masters  of  speech, — save 
only  the  French,  who  disdain  all  common  things,  as 
their  aristocratic  but  elegant  literature  was  bred  in  a 
court,  though  rudely  cradled  elsewhere,  nay,  born  of 
rough    loins, — of  poets  like    Homer,  Dante,  Shake- 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  165 

speare,  Goethe,  of  Hebrew  David,  and  of  Roman  Ilor- 
ace ;  of  philosophers  hke  Socrates  and  Locke  ;  of 
preachers  like  Luther,  Latimer,  Barrow,  Butler  and 
South  ;  nay,  elegant  Jeremy  Taylor,  'Hlie  Shakespeare 
of  divines/'  owes  half  his  beauty  to  these  weeds  of 
nature,  which  are  choicest  flowers  when  set  in  his 
artistic  garden.  But  one  need  not  go  beyond  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  and  the  first  three  Gospels  to  learn  great 
lessons  in  the  art  of  speech  ;  for  in  him  you  not 
only  reverence  the  Genius  for  Religion,  which  intui- 
tively sees  divine  Truth  and  human  Duty,  but  wonder 
also  at  the  power  of  speech  that  tells  its  tale  as  deliv- 
erly  as  the  blackbird  sings  or  the  water  runs  down 
hill.  Besides,  to  me  common  life  is  full  of  poetry  and 
pictorial  loveliness ;  spontaneously  portrayed,  its 
events  will  fill  my  mind  as  one  by  one  the  stars  come 
out  upon  the  evening  sky,  like  them  each  one  '^  a 
beauty  and  a  mystery."  It  is  therefore  a  necessity 
of  my  nature  that  the  sermon  should  publicly  reflect 
to  you  what  privately  hangs  over  it  with  me,  and  the 
waters  rained  out  of  my  sky  when  cloudy,  should  give 
back  its  ordinary  stars  when  clear.  Yet,  for  the  same 
reason,  I  have  also  fetched  illustrations  from  paths  of 
literature  and  science,  less  familiar  perhaps  to  most  of 
you,  when  they,  better  than  aught  else,  would  clear  a 
troubled  thought ;  so,  in  my  rosary  of  familiar  beads, 
I  have  sometimes  strung  a  pearl  or  two  which  Science 
brought   from  oceanic  depths,  or  fixed  thereon    tlie 


IGG  THEODORE    PARKER's 

costly  gems  where  ancient  or  modern  Art  has  wrought 
devices  dearer  than  the  precious  stone  itself. 

Using  plain  words  and  familiar  illustrations,  and 
preaching  also  on  the  greatest  themes,  I  have  not 
feared  to  treat  philosophic  matters  with  the  rigor  of 
science,  and  never  thought  I  should  scare  you  with 
statistic  facts,  which  are  the  ultimate  expression  of  a 
great  princijDle  doing  its  work  by  a  constant  mode  of 
operation,  nor  by  psychologic  analysis,  or  metaphysi- 
cal demonstration.  ISIinisters  told  me  I  was  "preach- 
ing over  the  heads  of  the  people  ;"  I  only  feared  to 
preach  below  their  feet,  or  else  aside  from  their  ears. 
Thus  handling  great  themes  before  attentive  men, 
I  have  also  dared  to  treat  them  long,  for  I  read  the 
time  not  on  the  dial,  but  the  audience.  I  trust  you 
Avill  pardon  the  offence,  which  I  perhaps  shall  not 
repeat. 

My  Friends, —  I  said  that  in  my  early  life  I  feared 
the  temptations  that  beset  the  Lawyer's  path,  and, 
trembling  at  the  moral  ruin,  which  seemed  so  immi- 
nent, turned  to  the  high  ecclesiastic  road.  Alas  !  the 
l^eril  is  only  different,  not  less.  The  lawyer  is  drawn 
to  one  kind  of  wickedness,  the  minister  to  another; 
their  sophistry  and  cunning  arc  about  equal,  only  in 
the  one  case  it  is  practised  in  the  name  of  "  Law/' 
and  for  an  obvious  "  worldly  end,"  and  in  the  other 
in  the  name  of  "  Gospel,"  and  professedly  to  secure 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  1G7 

''  Salvation."  Learning  to  distinguish  sound  from 
significance,  I  have  not  found  the  moral  tone  of  min- 
isters higher  than  that  of  lawyers,  their  motives 
purer,  their  behavior  more  honest,  or  their  humanity 
more  prompt  and  wide,  only  their  alms  are  greater 
in  proportion  to  their  purse.  In  choosing  the  cleri- 
cal, not  the  legal  profession,  I  think  I  encountered 
quite  as  much  peculiar  peril  as  I  shunned.  The  Gos- 
pel-mill of  the  minister  is  managed  with  as  much  in- 
justice as  the  Law-mill  of  the  other  profession. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  say  I  have  succeeded  in  keep- 
ing any  portion  of  my  youthful  vow.  Yet  one  thing  I 
am  sure  of:  I  never  appealed  to  a  mean  motive,  nor 
used  an  argument  I  did  not  think  both  just  and  true  ; 
I  have  employed  no  conscious  sophistry,  nor  ever  dis- 
guised my  ignorance. 

Together  we  have  tried  some  things,  which  did  not 
prosper,  and  so  came  to  an  end. 

We  attempted  Sunday  afternoon  meetings,  for  free 
discussion  of  what  pertains  to  Religion.  I  hoped 
much  good  from  that  experiment ;  yet  it  was  made 
not  only  a  vanity,  but  also  a  vexation  of  sj)irit,  by  a 
few  outsiders,  who  talked  much,  while  they  had  little 
or  nothing  to  say ;  there  could  be  no  wisdom  Avhere 
their  voices  were  heard. 

Next,  we  tried  Lectures  on  the  Bible,  Sunday  after- 
noons, which    continued    during   the    wintry  half  of 


168  THEODORE  Parker's 

several  years.  I  gave  six  geueral  lectures  on  the 
Origin  and  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  then  turned  to  the  Criticism  and  Interpretation 
of  the  several  books  of  the  latter.  With  Tischen- 
dorf 's  edition  of  the  original  text  in  my  hand,  I  trans- 
lated the  three  Synoptic  Gospels,  the  four  undoubted 
Epistles  of  Paul,  the  Acts,  and  the  "  Johannic  "  Writ- 
ings—  Revelation,  Gospel,  Epistles, — 'explaining  each 
book,  verse,  and  word,  as  well  as  I  could.  I  intended 
to  treat  all  the  other  Canonical  and  Apocryphal  Books 
of  the  New  and  Old  Testaments  in  the  same  way.  But 
either  the  matter  was  too  learned,  or  the  manner  too 
dull,  for  it  did  not  succeed  Avell,  bringing  a  class  of 
but  a  few  scores  of  persons.  This  experiment  was 
abandoned  when  we  removed  to  the  Music  Hall,  and 
had  no  place  for  an  afternoon  meeting. 

I  have  long  meditated  other  things,  which  might, 
perhaps,  be  helpful  to  select  classes  of  young  men 
and  women ;  but  as  they  are  now  not  likely  to  be 
more  than  thoughts,  I  will  not  name  them  here. 

Last  year  you  organized  your  Fraternity ;  the 
movement  was  spontaneous  on  your  part,  not  origi- 
nating in  any  hint  of  mine.  Though  I  had  long  wanted 
such  an  association,  so  various  in  its  purposes,  and  so 
liberal  in  its  plan,  I  did  not  venture  to  propose  it, 
preferring  it  should  come  without  my  prompting  in 
1858,  rather  than  merely  by  it  ten  years  before.     A 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  1G9 

minister  as  sure  of  the  confidence  of  his  hearers  as  I 
am  of  yours,  is  often  a  Httle  inclined  to  be  invasive, 
and  thrust  his  personality  on  that  of  his  congrega- 
tion, making  his  will  take  the  place  of  their  common 
sense ;  hence  many  trees  of  clerical  planting  fail, 
because  they  originate  only  with  the  minister,  and 
root  but  into  him,  I  hope  great  good  from  this 
Fraternity,  and  have  laid  out  much  work  for  myself 
to  do  with  its  help.  To  mention  but  one  thing :  I 
intended  this  season  to  deliver  before  it  ten  easy  Lec- 
tures on  the  First  Three  Centuries  of  the  Christian 
Era,  and  show  how  the  Christianity  of  the  Christians, 
alas !  not  the  more  humane  and  natural  religion  of 
Jesus,  developed  itself  in  Ideas — •the  doctrines  of 
the  Biblical  and  Patristic  books  ;  in  Institutions  —  the 
special  churches,  each  a  Republic  at  first,  with 
individual  Variety  of  Action,  but  gradually  degenerat- 
ing into  a  Despotic  Monarchy,  with  only  ecclesiasti- 
cal Unity  of  Action ;  and  finally,  after  compromising 
with  the  Hebrew  and  Classic  schemes,  how  it  became 
the  Organized  Religion  of  the  civilized  world,  a  new 
force  in  it  both  for  good  and  evil,  the  most  powerful 
organization  on  earth.  In  my  sleepless  nights  last 
Autumn,  I  sketched  out  the  plan  and  arranged  the 
chief  details ;  but  it  must  now  pass  away,  like  other 
less  systematic  visions  of  a  sick  man  in  his  sleep. 


15 


170  THEODORE    PARKER'S 

When  a  young  man,  it  was  a  part  of  my  original 
plan  to  leave  the  practical  work  of  continual  preach- 
ing, a  little  before  I  should  be  fifty  years  old,  and 
devote  the  residue  of  my  life  to  publishing  works 
which  I  hoped  might  be  of  permanent  value,  separat- 
ing the  two  periods  by  a  year  or  two  of  travel  in 
the  American  Tropics  and  the  Mediterranean  coun- 
tries of  the  Old  World ;  so  I  thought  I  might  be  most 
useful  to  mankind,  for  I  did  not  anticipate  or  desire 
long  life,  and  did  not  originally  rate  very  high  my 
ability  to  affect  the  mass  of  men  by  direct  word  of 
mouth,  and  made  no  pretensions  to  that  most  popular 
of  intellectual  attainments,  that  Eloquence,  which, 
like  other  beauty,  is  at  once  a  pleasure  and  a  power, 
delighting  whom  it  compels.  But,  when  I  found  the 
scholarly  class  more  unfriendly  than  the  multitude, 
I  began  to  think  I  had  chosen  the  wrong  audience  to 
address  ;  that  it  was  the  PeojDle,  not  the  Scholars, 
who  were  to  lead  in  philosophic  thought ;  and  when 
you  gave  me  a  chance  to  be  heard  in  Boston,  and  I 
preached  on  from  year  to  year,  great  crowds  of  men, 
who  were  not  readers  but  workers  in  the  week, 
coming  and  continuing  to  listen  to  the  longest  of 
sermons,  wherein  great  subjects  were  treated  with- 
out respect  to  popular  prejudice,  ecclesiastical, 
political,  or  social,  and  that,  too,  without  sparing 
the  severest  attention  of  the  hearers ;  when  I  found 
these  multitudes  seemed  to  comprehend  the  abstract- 


EXPERIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  171 

est  reasoning,  and  truths  most  universal,  and 
appeared  to  be  instructed,  set  free,  and  even  ele- 
vated to  higher  hopes  both  here  and  hereafter,  and 
to  noble  character ;  when,  with  all  my  directness  of 
homely  speech,  I  found  myself  welcome  in  most  of 
the  Lecture  halls  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Penobscot,  and  even  beyond  them,  having  thence 
two  or  three  hundred  invitations  a  year ;  when  the 
national  crisis  became  nearer  and  more  threatening, 
and  I  saw  my  Sentiments  and  Ideas  visibly  passing 
into  the  opinion  and  the  literature  of  the  People, 
and  thence  coming  out  in  the  legislation  of  New 
England  and  the  other  Northern  States,  —  I  thought 
it  not  quite  time  to  withdraw,  and  my  early  purposes 
were  a  little  shaken.  I  intended  to  continue  some 
ten  years  more  in  severe  practical  work,  till  about 
sixty,  then  retire,  not  to  lie  down  in  the  grave  like 
a  camel  under  his  load  at  night,  but  hoping  to  enjoy 
a  long  quiet  autumn  of  twenty  years  or  so,  when  I 
might  accomplish  my  philosophic  and  literary  works, 
and  mow  up  as  provender  for  future  time  what  I  had 
first  raised  as  green  grass,  and  then  mowed  down  to 
make  into  sound  hay,  but  have  now  left,  alas  !  either 
strown  where  it  grew,  or  but  loosely  raked  together, 
not  yet  carted  into  safe  barns  for  the  long  winter,  or 
even  stacked  up  and  sheltered  against  immediate 
spoiling  by  a  sudden  rain  in  harvest. 

Besides,  I   felt   quickened   for   practical  work  by 


172  THEODORE   PARKER's 

the  great  exigences  of  the  Nation,  the  importance 
of  the  fight  already  going  on  between  Despotism  on 
one  side,  with  its  fugitive  slave  bills,  New  England 
kidnappers  and  sophists,  in  bar  or  pulpit,  and 
Democracy  on  the  other,  with  its  Self-evident  Truths, 
Unalienable  Rights,  and  vast  industrial  and  educa- 
tional developments  —  a  battle  not  yet  understood, 
but  destined  to  grow  hot  and  red  ere  long,  —  and  by 
the  confidence  I  have  always  felt  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  Right  and  True,  the  Beautiful  and 
Good.  Moreover,  I  was  encouraged  in  my  course  by 
the  soundness  and  vigor  of  my  bodily  frame,  not 
stout,  perhaps,  and  strong,  but  capable  of  much  and 
long-continued  work  of  the  most  various  kinds,  not 
tiring  soon,  nor  easily  made  ill,  but  quick  recovering 
from  both  fatigue  and  sickness ;  and  by  the  long 
average  life  of  six  generations  of  American  fathers 
and  mothers.  But  I  have  now  learned  by  experience 
that  it  is  not  wise  to  cherish  Avide  personal  hopes  in 
a  narrow  life,  or  seek  to  make  an  apple-tree  larger 
than  the  orchard. 

For  some  years,  I  have  been  warned  that  I  was 
not  only  spending  the  full  income  of  life,  but 
encroaching  a  little  on  the  capital  stock.  But  what 
Avise  man  even  is  always  Avise  ?  The  duties  were  so 
urgent,  the  call  for  help  so  imploring,  the  labor  at 
once  so  delightful  in  its  process  and  so  prophetic  of 
good  results,  and  I  felt  such  confidence  in  my  bodily 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  173 

power  and  ancestral  longevity,  that  I  did  not 
sufficiently  heed  the  gentle  admonition;  till,  last  year, 
in  March,  Nature  at  once  gave  way,  and  I  was  com- 
pelled to  yield  to  a  necessity  above  my  will.  I  need 
not  tell  the  fluctuations  in  my  health  since  then; 
rather,  my  Friends,  let  me  again  thank  you  for  the 
prompt  and  generous  sympathy  you  gave  then  and 
ever  since. 

Immediately  after  my  present  illness,  I  left  your 
Pulpit  empty  for  a  day.  You  wrote  me  a  letter 
signed  by  many  a  dear  familiar  name,  and  but  for  the 
haste,  I  know  it  had  been  enriched  with  the  signatures 
of  all ;  it  was  dated  at  Boston,  January  11.  Your 
affection  wrote  the  lines,  and  a  kindred  wisdom  kept 
them  from  me  till  I  was  able  to  bear  this  unexpected 
testimonial  of  your  sympathy  and  love.  On  Sunday, 
the  sixth  of  March,  while  you  were  listening  to — alas! 
I  know  not  whom  you  looked  to  then,  —  my  eyes 
filled  with  tears  as  I  first  read  your  words  of  delicate 
appreciation  and  esteem.  My  Friends,  I  wish  I  were 
worthy  of  such  reverence  and  love  ;  that  my  service 
were  equal  to  your  gratitude.  I  have  had  more  than 
sufficient  reward  for  my  labors  with  you ;  not  oiily 
have  I  seen  a  good  work  and  a  great  prosper  in  my 
hands  as  you  held  them  up,  but  in  public,  and  still 
more  in  private,  you  have  given  me  the  sweetest,  best 
of  outward  consolations — the  grateful  sympathy  of 
earnest,  thoughtful  and  religious  men.  If  my  public 
15* 


174  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

life  has  been  a  battle,  wherein  my  head  grows  bald, 
my  beard  turns  grey,  and  my  arm  becomes  feeble, 
before  their  time,  it  has  been  also  a  Triumph,  whose 
crown  is  not  woven  of  the  red-flowered  laurels  of  war, 
but  of  the  olive,  the  lily,  the  violet,  and  the  white 
rose  of  peace.  I  have  no  delight  in  controversy ; 
when  assailed,  I  have  never  returned  the  assault ;  and 
though  continually  fired  upon  for  many  years  from  the 
bar-room  and  the  pulpit,  and  many  another  "coigne 
of  vantage  "  betwixt  the  two,  I  never  in  return  shot 
back  an  arrow,  in  private  or  public,  until  in  the 
United  States  Court  I  was  arraigned  for  the  "misde- 
meanor" of  making  a  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall  against 
that  kidnapping  in  Boston,  perpetrated  by  the  public 
guardian  of  widows  and  orphans ;  then  I  prepared 
my  Defence,  which  had  been  abler  Avere  I  more  a  law- 
yer, though  less  a  minister. 

To  compose  sermons,  and  preach  them  to  multitudes 
of  men  of  one  sort  but  many  conditions,  thereto  set- 
ting forth  the  great  Truths  of  Absolute  Religion,  and 
applying  them  to  the  various  events  of  this  wondrous 
human  life,  trying  to  make  the  Constitution  of  the 
Universe  the  Common  Law  of  men,  illustrating  my 
thought  with  all  that  I  can  gatlicr  from  the  World  of 
Matter,  its  use  and  beauty  both,  and  from  the  World 
of  Man,  from  human  labors,  sorrows,  joys  and  ever- 
lasting hopes,  —  this  has  been  my  great  delight. 
Your  pulpit  has  been  my  joy  and  my  tlirone.    Though 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTEE.  175 

Press  and  State,  Market  and  Meeting-House,  have 
been  hostile  to  us,  you  have  yet  given  me  the  largest 
Protestant  audience  in  America,  save  that  which 
Orthodox  Mr.  Beecher,  who  breaks  with  no  theologic 
tradition  of  the  New  England  Church,  inspires  with 
his  deep  emotional  nature,  so  devout  and  so  humane, 
and  charms  with  his  poetic  eloquence,  that  is  akin  to 
both  the  sweetrbriar  and  the  rose  and  all  the  beauty 
which  springs  up  wild  amid  New  England  hills,  and 
to  the  loveliness  of  common  life ;  I  have  given  you 
my  sermons  in  return,  at  once  my  labor  and  delight. 
My  Life  is  in  them,  and  all  my  character,  its  good  and 
ill ;  thereby  you  know  me  better  than  I,  perhaps, 
myself, — -for  a  man's  words  and  his  face  when  ex- 
cited in  sermon  and  in  prayer  tell  all  he  is,  the 
reflection  of  what  he  has  done.  Sermons  are  never 
out  of  my  mind ;  and  when  sickness  brings  on  me  the 
consciousness  that  I  have  nought  to  do,  its  most  pain- 
ful part,  still,  by  long  habit  all  things  will  take  this 
form ;  and  the  gorgeous  vegetation  of  the  Tropics, 
their  fiery  skies  so  brilliant  all  the  day,  and  star-lit  too 
with  such  exceeding  beauty  all  the  night ;  the  glitter- 
ing fishes  in  the  market,  as  many-colored  as  a  gar- 
dener's show,  these  Josephs  of  the  sea ;  the  silent 
pelicans,  flying  forth  at  morning  and  back  again  at 
night ;  the  strange,  fantastic  trees,  the  dry  pods  rat- 
tling their  historic  bones  all  day,  while  the  new  bloom 
comes  fragrant  out  beside,  a  noiseless  prophecy  ;  the 


176  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

ducks  rejoicing  in  the  long-expected  rain ;  a  negro  on 
an  ambling  pad ;  the  slender-legged,  half-naked  negro 
children  in  the  street,  playing  their  languid  games, 
or  oftener  screaming  'neath  their  mother's  blows,  amid 
black  swine,  hens  and  uncounted  dogs  ;  the  never- 
ceasing  clack  of  women's  tongues,  more  shrewd  than 
female  in  their  shrill  violence ;  the  unceasing,  mul- 
tifarious kindness  of  our  hostess ;  and,  overtower- 
ing  all,  the  self-suflScient,  West  Indian  Creole  pride, 
alike  contemptuous  of  toil,  and  ignorant  and  impotent 
of  thought, — all  these  common  things  turn  into  poetry 
as  I  look  on  or  am  compelled  to  hear,  and  then  trans- 
figure into  sermons,  which  come  also  spontaneously 
by  night  and  give  themselves  to  me,  and  even  in  my 
sleep  say  they  are  meant  for  you.  Shall  they  ever  be 
more  than  the  walking  of 

"  a  sick  man  in  his  sleep, 
Three  paces,  and  then  fahcring"? 

The  doctors  cannot  tell ;  I  also  know  not,  but  hope 
and  strive  to  live  a  little  longer,  that  I  may  work 
much  more.  Oh,  that  the  truths  of  Absolute  Religion, 
which  Human  Nature  demands,  and  offers,  too,  from 
the  Infinitely  Perfect  God  who  dwells  therein,  while 
He  transcends  the  Universe,  Oh,  that  these  were  an 
Idea  enlightening  all  men's  minds,  a  Feeling  in  their 
hearts,  and  Action  in  their  outward  life  !  Oh,  that 
America's  two  and  thirty  thousand  ministers,  Hebrew, 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  177 

Christian,  Mormon,  knew  these  truths,  and  to  mankind 
preached  Piety  and  Morahty,  and  that  Theology  which 
is  the  Science  of  God  and  his  two-fold  Universe,  and 
forgot  their  mythologic  and  misguiding  dreams !  Then 
what  a  New  World  were  ours  !  Sure  I  would  gladly 
live  to  work  for  this. 

I  may  recover  entirely,  and  stand  before  you  full 
of  brown  health,  equal  to  the  manifold  labors  of  that 
position,  live  to  the  long  period  of  some  of  my  fathers, 
and  at  last  die  naturally  of  old  age.  This  to  me 
seems  most  desirable,  though  certainly  not  most 
probable. 

Or,  I  may  so  far  recover,  that  I  shall  falter  on  a 
score  of  years  or  so,  one  eye  on  my  work,  the  other 
on  my  body,  which  refuses  to  do  it,  and  so  urge 
my  weak  and  balky  horse  along  a  miry,  broken 
road.  If  this  be  so,  then,  in  some  still,  little  rural 
nook,  in  sight  of  town,  but  not  too  nigh,  I  may  finish 
some  of  the  many  things  I  have  begun,  and  left  for 
the  afternoon  or  evening  of  my  days ;  and  yet,  also, 
from  time  to  time,  meet  you  again,  and,  with  words  of 
lofty  cheer,  look  on  the  inspiring  face  of  a  great  con- 
gregation. With  this  I  should  be  well  content ;  once 
it  was  the  ideal  of  my  hope. 

In  either  of  these  cases,  I  see  how  the  time  of  this 
illness,  and  the  discipline  alike  of  disappointment  and 
recovery,  would  furnish  me  new  power.  Several 
times  in  my  life  has  it  happened  that  I  have  met  with 


ITS  THEODORE    PARKER's 

■\vhat  seemed  worse  than  death,  and,  in  my  short- 
sighted folly,  I  said,  '^  Oh,  that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove  I 
for  then  would  I  fly  away  and  be  at  rest !  "  Yet  my 
griefs  all  turned  into  blessings ;  the  joyous  seed  I 
planted  came  up  Discipline,  and  I  wished  to  tear  it 
from  the  ground ;  but  it  flowered  fair,  and  bore  a 
sweeter,  sounder  fruit  than  I  expected  from  what  I 
set  in  earth.  As  I  look  over  my  life,  I  find  no  disap- 
pointment and  no  sorrow  I  could  afford  to  lose ;  the 
cloudy  morning  has  turned  out  the  fairer  day ;  the 
wounds  of  my  enemies  have  done  me  good.  So  won- 
drous is  this  Human  Life,  not  ruled  by  Fate,  but 
Providence,  which  is  Wisdom  married  unto  Love, 
each  infinite  !  What  has  been,  may  be.  If  I  recover 
wholly,  or  but  in  part,  I  see.  new  sources  of  power 
beside  these  waters  of  afiliction  I  have  stooped  at ; 
I  shall  not  think  I  have  gone  through  "  the  Yalley  of 
Baca "  in  vain,  nor  begrudge  the  time  that  I  have 
lingered  there,  seeming  idle;  rainy  days  also  help 
seed  the  ground.  One  thing  I  am  sure  of:  I  have 
learned  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  grateful,  gener- 
ous feelings  of  men,  as  I  knew  them  not  before, 
nor  hoped  on  earth  to  find  so  rich.  High  as  I  have 
thought  of  Human  Nature,  I  had  not  quite  done  jus- 
tice to  the  present  growth  of  these  beautiful  faculties. 
Here  and  now,  as  so  oft  before,  I  have  found  more 
treasure  than  I  dreamed  lay  hidden  where  I  looked. 
But  if  neither  of  those  hopes  becomes  a  fact,  if  the 


EXPEEIENCE   AS   A   MINISTER.  179 

silver  cord  jDart  soon  above  the  fountain,  and  the 
golden  bowl  be  broke,  let  not  us  complain ;  a  new 
bowl,  and  a  stronger  cord,  shall  serve  the  "Well  of 
Life  for  you.  Though  quite  aware  how  probable  this 
seems,  believe  me,  I  have  not  yet  had  a  single  hour  of 
sadness  ;  trust  me,  I  shall  not.  True,  it  is  not  pleas- 
ant to  leave  the  plough  broken  in  the  furrow  just 
begun,  while  the  seed-corn  smiles  in  the  open  sack, 
impatient  to  be  sown,  and  the  whole  field  promises 
such  liberal  return.  To  say  Farewell  to  the  thousands 
I  have  been  wont  to  preach  to,  and  pray  with,  now 
joyous,  and  tearful  now, — it  has  its  bitterness  to  one 
not  eighty-four,  but  forty-eight.  To  undo  the  natural 
ties  more  intimately  knit  of  long-continued  friendship 
and  of  love, — this  is  the  bitter  part.  But  if  it  be  my 
lot,  let  not  you  nor  me  complain.  Death  comes  to  none 
except  to  bring  a  blessing ;  it  is  no  misfortune  to  lay 
aside  these  well-loved  weeds  of  earth,  and  be  immor- 
tal. To  you,  as  a  Congregation,  my  loss  may  be 
easily  supplied ;  and  to  me  it  is  an  added  consolation 
to  know  that,  however  long  and  tenderly  remembered, 
I  should  not  long  be  missed ;  some  other  will  come  in 
my  place,  perhaps  without  my  defects,  possessed  of 
nobler  gifts,  and  certainly  not  hindered  by  the  eccle- 
siastical and  social  hostility  which  needs  must  oppose 
a  man  who  has  lived  and  wrought  as  I.  It  will  not 
always  be  unpopular  justly  to  seek  the  welfare 
,  of  all  men.     Let  us  rejoice  that  others  may  easily 


180  THEODORE   PARKER'S 

reap  golden  corn  where  we  have  but  scared  the  wiM 
beasts  away,  or  hewn  down  the  savage  woods,  burn- 
ing them  Avith  dangerous  fire,  and  made  the  rich, 
rough  ground  smooth  for  culture.  It  was  with  grim- 
mer fight,  with  sourer  sweat,  and  blacker  smoke,  and 
redder  fire,  that  the  fields  were  cleared  where  you 
and  I  now  win  a  sweet  and  easy  bread. 

What  more  shall  I  say  to  sweeten  words  of  farc- 
Avell,  which  must  have  a  bitter  taste  ?  If  I  have 
taught  you  any  great  Religious  Truths,  or  roused 
therewith  Emotions  that  are  good,  apjDly  them  to 
your  life,  however  humble  or  however  high  and 
wide ;  convert  them  into  Deeds,  that  your  superior 
Religion  may  appear  in  your  superior  Industry,  your 
Justice  and  your  Charity,  coming  out  in  your  house- 
keeping and  all  manner  of  work.     So  when  your 

"  course 
Is  run,  some  faithful  eulogist  may  say, 
He  sought  not  praise,  and  praise  did  ovei'look 
His  unobtrusive  merit;  but  his  life. 
Sweet  to  himself,  Avas  exercised  in  Good, 
That  shall  survive  his  name  and  mcmorj-." 

Let  no  fondness  for  me,  now  heightened  by  my 
illness,  and  my  absence  too,  blind  your  eyes  to  errors 
which  may  be  in  my  doctrine,  which  must  be  in  my 
life  ;  I  am  content  to  serve  by  Avarning,  where  I 
cannot   guide   by   example.     Mortal,   or   entered   on 


EXPERIENCE    AS    A    MINISTER.  181 

Immortal  Life,  still  lot  me  be  your  Minister,  to  serve, 
never  your  Master,  to  hinder  and  command.  Do  not 
stop  where  I  could  go  no  further,  for,  after  so  long 
teaching,  I  feel  that  I  have  just  begun  to  learn, 
begun  my  work.  '^  No  man  can  feed  us  always  ;  '' 
welcome,  then,  each  wiser  guide  who  points  you  out 
a  better  way.  On  earth,  I  shall  not  cease  to  be 
thankful  for  your  Patience,  which  has  borne  with  me 
so  much  and  long  ;  for  your  Sympathy,  nearest  when 
needed  most,  and  the  examples  of  noble  Christian 
Life,  which  I  have  found  in  some  of  you, 

'•  to  -whom  is  given 
The  joy  tliat  mixes  man  with  Heaven  : 
Who,  rowing  hard  against  the  stream, 
See  distant  gates  of  Eden  gleam, 
And  never  dream  it  is  a  dream  ; 
But  hear,  by  secret  transport  led, 
Even  in  the  charnels  of  tlie  dead, 
The  murmur  of  the  Fountain-head: 
Who  will  accomplish  High  Desire, 
Bear  and  forbear,  and  never  tire,  — 
Like  Stephen,  an  unquenched  fire, 
As  looking  upward,  full  of  grace. 
Pie  23t'ayed,  and  from  a  happy  place 
God's  glorj'  smote  him  on  the  face  ! " 

Here  they  add  to  my  joy ;  perhaps  their  remem- 
brance will  add  to  my  delight  in  Heaven. 

May  you  be  faithful  to  your  own  Souls  ;    train  up 
IG 


182  THEODORE    PARKER'S    EXPERIENCE,    ETC. 

your  Sons  and  Daughters  to  lofty  character,  most  fit 
for  humble  duty;  and  to  far  cathedral  heights  of 
excellence,  build  up  the  Being  that  you  are,  with 
Feelings,  Thoughts  and  Actions,  that  become  "a 
glorious  Human  Creature,"  by  greatly  doing  the 
common  work  of  life,  heedful  of  all  the  Charities, 
which  are  twice  blest,  both  by  their  gifts  and  their 
forgiveness  too.  And  the  Infinite  Perfection,  the 
Cause  and  Providence  of  all  that  is,  the  Absolute 
Love,  transcending  the  time  and  space  it  fills,  our 
Father,  and  our  Mother  too,  will  bless  you  each 
beyond  your  prayer,  forever  and  forever.  Bodily 
absent,  though  present  still  Avith  you  by  the  Immor- 
tal Part,  so  hopes  and  prays 

Your  Minister  and  Friend, 

THEODORE  PARKER. 

Fredericksted,  West-End,  Santa  Cruz, 
April  10th,  1859. 


EEY.  THEODORE  PARKER'S  AVORKS, 

PUBLISHED       BY 

RUFUS     LEIGHTON,   JR., 
]Vo.    112    "Wasliini^toii    Street,  Boston. 


ATTT  OF  THE  FOLLO"WI]SrG  WORKS  "WILL  BE  SEISTT  BY 
MAIL,  POSTAGE  PAID,  ON  KECEIPT  OF  THE  PRICE. 

A  Discourse  of  Matters  Pertaining  to  Re- 
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BOOK 

I.  Of  Eeligion  in  General  ;  or  the 
Keligious  Klement  and  its  Manifesta- 
tions. 

II.  Relation  of  tlie  Religious  Ele- 
ment to  God;  or  a  Discourse  of  Inspi- 
ration. 


ment  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth;  or  a  Dis- 
course of  Christianity. 

IV  Relation  of  the  Religious  Ele- 
ment to  the  Greate>t  of  Boolcs;  or  a 
Discourse  of  the  Bible. 

V.  Relation  of  the  Religious  Ele- 
ment to  the  Greatest  of  Human  Insti- 


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Sermons  of  Theism,  Atheism,  and  the  Popu- 
lar Theology,     l  vol.  12mo.    Cloth.    §1.25. 


Introduction.  i 

I.  Sfieculafive  Atheism,  Regarded  as 
a  Theory  of  the  Universe. 

II.  Practical  Atheism,  Regarded  as  ' 
a  Principle  of  Ethics 

III.  The  Popular  Theology  of  Chris-  [ 
tendom,  Regarded  as  a  Theory  of  the  | 
Universe.  i 

IV.  The  Popular  Theology  of  Chris-  I 
tendom,  Regarded  as  a  Principle  of 
Ethics.  j 


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a  Theory  of  the  Universe. 

yj.  Practical  I'heism,  Regarded  as  a 
I'riiiciple  of  Ethics. 

VH.  The  Function  and  Influence  of 
the  Idea  of  Immortal  L,ile. 

VIII.  The  Universal  Providence  of 
God. 

IX.,  X.  The  Economy  of  Pain  and 
Misery  under  the  Universal  Providence 
of  God, 


Ten  Sermons  of  Religion.  lvol.i2mo.  Cloth.  $1.00. 


I.  Piety,  and  its  Relation  to  Manlv 
Life. 

II.  Truth  and  the  Intellect. 

III.  Justice  and  the  Conscience. 

IV.  Love  and  the  Affections. 

v.  Conscious  Religion  and  the  Soul. 
VI.   The  Culture    of  the   Religious 
Powers. 


VII.  Conscious  Religion  as  a  Source 
of  Strength. 

VIII  Conscious  Religion  as  aSource 
of  Joy. 

IX.  Conventional  and  Natural  Sac- 
raments. 

X.  Communion  with  God. 


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Additional  Speeches,  Addresses,  and  Occa- 
sional  Sermons.     -  vols.  l^mo.      Cloth.     '$'2.H). 


^'  o  L .   I . 

I.  Spoocli  at  tlio  Miiiisfcrial  Confur- 
eiice  ill  iJostoii,  Jlav  29,  1851. 


VOL.    II. 

I.  Tl:c  Proprpss  of  Americn. 

II.  'J  he    >e\v    Crime    ajraiiift    IIu- 


If.  'J'lie   Ho>toii    Kidnappiug  —  The    mniiity — Tlie   Kendition   of  Aiithouy 
Itei.ditioii  of  Thomas  Siiiis  Burns. 


III.     The    A.i^pect    of  Freedom    in 
Aiiu'iica. 

IV  Di.-coiirse    occasioned    by    the 
Death  of  Daniel  Wehster. 

V  The  Ktliiaska  (j;Lu>tioii. 

VI.    'J  he   C'oiiditicu    of  America   in 
ItL-Iatiou  to  Slavery. 


III.  The  Laws  of  God  and  the  Stat- 
utes of  Men. 

IV.  I'he  Danfjers  wliich    Threaten 
the  ];jjrlits  of  JIiiii  in  America. 

V    boiiie  Account  of  my  Jliiiistry. 

VI.  The  lublic  Function  of  Wo- 
man. 

VII.  Sermon  of  Old  Age. 


Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Writings,     i  vol. 

I-Jiiio.     Cloth.      $1  2;'). 


I    A  Lesson  for  the  Day. 
JI    tjeiinaii  Liteiaiure. 

III.  The  Life  of  .'it.  Hernard  of  Clair- 
vaux. 

IV.  Truth  Against  the  World. 

V.  Thoughts  on  Labor. 

VI.  I'he  Transient   and   Permanent 
in  Christianity. 


VII.  The  rharisees. 

VIII.  Education  of  the    Laboring 
Classes. 

IX.  ilow  to  Move  the  World. 
.\.  I'litnitive  Christianity. 
.\I.  .stiau-s"s  Lile  of  Jesus. 
XII.  Thoughts  on  Theology. 


A  Critical  and  Historical  Introduction  to 
the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. From  the  (Jornian  of  De  Wkttk.  Translateil  and 
oiilargod  1)y  TiiEonoitK  Parker.  Third  Edition.  2  vols. 
8vo.     Cloth.     Sa.75. 


The  Trial  of  Theodore  Parker,  for  the  Misdemeanor 

of  a  Speech  in  Faneuil   Hall  against  Kidnapping  ;  with  the 
Defence.     1  vol.  8vo.      Cloth.      $1.00. 


PAMPHLET 

SERMONS  AND   SPEECHES. 


PEICE. 

1.  —  Some  Thoughts  on  the  most  Christian  use  of  Sunday  (1848)  .        .  20 

2.  —  A  Discourse  on  John  Quincy  Adams  (1848) 20 

3— A  Sermon  of  the  Mexican  War  (1848) 15 

4. —  The  Moral  and  Spiritual  Condition  of  Boston  (1849)        ...  15 

5.  — The  Public  Education  of  the  People  (1850) 20 

6 —The  Chief  Sins  of  the  People  (1861)     .                15 

7  — Two  Sermons  giving  some  Account  of  his  Ministry  and  of  the 

Postion  and  Duty  of  a  Minister  (1852)  ....  20 
8.  —  A  Friendly  Letter  to  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American 

Unitarian  Association  (1853) 13 

9. —The  Laws  of  God  and  the  Statutes  of  Men  (1854)      .        -        .        .  15 

10. — The  New  Crime  against  Humanity  (1854) 20 

11  —  The  Dangers  which  Threaten  the  Rights  of  Man  in  America  (1854)  20 

12  — The  Moral  Dangers  Incident  to  Prosperity  (1855)      ....  15 

13.  —  Consequences  of  an  Immoral  Principle  (1855) 15 

14,  _  Of  Immortal  Life.    Fifth  Edition.    (1858) 10 

15. — The  Functions  of  a  Teacher  of  Religion  (1855)         ....  20 

16.  —  A  Kevv  Lesson  for  the  Day  (185G) 15 

17.^- The  Great  Battle  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  (1856)    ...  25 

18.  —  The  Present  Aspect  of  Slavery  in  America  (1858)      ....  20 

19.  — A  Sermon  of  False  and  True  Theology  (1858) 8 

20. —  A  False  and  True  Revival  of  Religion  (1858) 8 

21.— The  Revival  of  Religion  which  we  need  (1858) 8 

22. — The  Relation  of  Slavery  to  a  Republican  Form  of  Government 

(1858) 8 

23. —The  Effect  of  Slavery  on  the  American  People  (July  4, 1858)  .        .  8 

24.  —  Four  Sermons  of  the  Biblical,  the  Ecclesiastical,  and  the  Philo- 

sophical Notion  of  God,  and  the  Soul's  Normal  Delight  in  Him  17 

25.  —  What  Religion  May  Do  for  a  Man  :  A  Sermon  for  the  New  Year 

(Jan.  2,  1859) 6 

26.  —  Beaut>   in  the  World  of  Matter,  Considered  as  a  Revelation  of 

God :  A  Sermon  for  Midsummer  Day 6 


Date  Due 

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on    Theoloqica)   Sfmin.iry-Spei 


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